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Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study

Supermarket food sales data might serve as a simple indicator of population-level dietary habits that influence the prevalence of excess weight in local environments. To test this possibility, we investigated how variation in store-level food sales composition across Switzerland is associated with t...

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Autores principales: Güsewell, Sabine, Floris, Joël, Berlin, Claudia, Zwahlen, Marcel, Rühli, Frank, Bender, Nicole, Staub, Kaspar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6470871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30857247
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11030579
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author Güsewell, Sabine
Floris, Joël
Berlin, Claudia
Zwahlen, Marcel
Rühli, Frank
Bender, Nicole
Staub, Kaspar
author_facet Güsewell, Sabine
Floris, Joël
Berlin, Claudia
Zwahlen, Marcel
Rühli, Frank
Bender, Nicole
Staub, Kaspar
author_sort Güsewell, Sabine
collection PubMed
description Supermarket food sales data might serve as a simple indicator of population-level dietary habits that influence the prevalence of excess weight in local environments. To test this possibility, we investigated how variation in store-level food sales composition across Switzerland is associated with the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of young men (Swiss Army conscripts) living near the stores. We obtained data on annual food sales (2011) for 553 stores from the largest supermarket chain in Switzerland, identified foods commonly regarded as “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on nutrient content, and determined their contribution to each store’s total sales (Swiss francs). We found that the sales percentages of both “healthy” and “unhealthy” food types varied by 2- to 3-fold among stores. Their balance ranged from −15.3% to 18.0% of total sales; it was positively associated with area-based socioeconomic position (r = 0.63) and negatively associated with the mean BMI of young men in the area (r = −0.42). Thus, even though we compared supermarkets from a single chain, different shopping behaviors of customers caused stores in privileged areas to sell relatively more healthy food. Knowledge about such patterns could help in designing in-store interventions for healthier nutrition and monitoring their effects over time.
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spelling pubmed-64708712019-04-25 Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study Güsewell, Sabine Floris, Joël Berlin, Claudia Zwahlen, Marcel Rühli, Frank Bender, Nicole Staub, Kaspar Nutrients Article Supermarket food sales data might serve as a simple indicator of population-level dietary habits that influence the prevalence of excess weight in local environments. To test this possibility, we investigated how variation in store-level food sales composition across Switzerland is associated with the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of young men (Swiss Army conscripts) living near the stores. We obtained data on annual food sales (2011) for 553 stores from the largest supermarket chain in Switzerland, identified foods commonly regarded as “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on nutrient content, and determined their contribution to each store’s total sales (Swiss francs). We found that the sales percentages of both “healthy” and “unhealthy” food types varied by 2- to 3-fold among stores. Their balance ranged from −15.3% to 18.0% of total sales; it was positively associated with area-based socioeconomic position (r = 0.63) and negatively associated with the mean BMI of young men in the area (r = −0.42). Thus, even though we compared supermarkets from a single chain, different shopping behaviors of customers caused stores in privileged areas to sell relatively more healthy food. Knowledge about such patterns could help in designing in-store interventions for healthier nutrition and monitoring their effects over time. MDPI 2019-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6470871/ /pubmed/30857247 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11030579 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Güsewell, Sabine
Floris, Joël
Berlin, Claudia
Zwahlen, Marcel
Rühli, Frank
Bender, Nicole
Staub, Kaspar
Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title_full Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title_fullStr Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title_full_unstemmed Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title_short Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study
title_sort spatial association of food sales in supermarkets with the mean bmi of young men: an ecological study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6470871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30857247
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11030579
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