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Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention

In the United States, food pantries increasingly serve as regular food sources for low income households experiencing high rates of chronic disease, including hypertension. Sodium consumption is a modifiable risk factor for hypertension, so pantry customers would benefit from access to low-sodium fo...

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Autores principales: Quinn, Emilee L., Ortiz, Kate, Titzer, Laura, Houston-Shimizu, Barb, Jones-Smith, Jessica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701667/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948815
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413206
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author Quinn, Emilee L.
Ortiz, Kate
Titzer, Laura
Houston-Shimizu, Barb
Jones-Smith, Jessica
author_facet Quinn, Emilee L.
Ortiz, Kate
Titzer, Laura
Houston-Shimizu, Barb
Jones-Smith, Jessica
author_sort Quinn, Emilee L.
collection PubMed
description In the United States, food pantries increasingly serve as regular food sources for low income households experiencing high rates of chronic disease, including hypertension. Sodium consumption is a modifiable risk factor for hypertension, so pantry customers would benefit from access to low-sodium foods. Pantry customers often experience difficulty acquiring healthy foods, however; little is known about pantry foods’ sodium content specifically. This study assesses the sodium content of pantry foods and lessons learned from an adaptable intervention to support pantries in adopting policies and environmental changes to make healthy, lower-sodium foods appealing and accessible. We conducted sodium assessments of food at 13 food pantries, tracked implementation of intervention strategies, and interviewed 10 pantry directors. More than half of food items in 11 categories met sodium standards for foods to be chosen “often”. Pantry directors reported valuing the intervention approach and implemented six of nine behavioral economics strategies, especially those targeting the visibility and convenience of foods, along with layout changes and expanded customer choice. One pantry adopted an agency-specific nutrition policy and 12 adopted a coalition-level policy. Results can inform intervention efforts to make available healthy options appealing and easy to select while also improving the customer experience in food pantries.
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spelling pubmed-87016672021-12-24 Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention Quinn, Emilee L. Ortiz, Kate Titzer, Laura Houston-Shimizu, Barb Jones-Smith, Jessica Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the United States, food pantries increasingly serve as regular food sources for low income households experiencing high rates of chronic disease, including hypertension. Sodium consumption is a modifiable risk factor for hypertension, so pantry customers would benefit from access to low-sodium foods. Pantry customers often experience difficulty acquiring healthy foods, however; little is known about pantry foods’ sodium content specifically. This study assesses the sodium content of pantry foods and lessons learned from an adaptable intervention to support pantries in adopting policies and environmental changes to make healthy, lower-sodium foods appealing and accessible. We conducted sodium assessments of food at 13 food pantries, tracked implementation of intervention strategies, and interviewed 10 pantry directors. More than half of food items in 11 categories met sodium standards for foods to be chosen “often”. Pantry directors reported valuing the intervention approach and implemented six of nine behavioral economics strategies, especially those targeting the visibility and convenience of foods, along with layout changes and expanded customer choice. One pantry adopted an agency-specific nutrition policy and 12 adopted a coalition-level policy. Results can inform intervention efforts to make available healthy options appealing and easy to select while also improving the customer experience in food pantries. MDPI 2021-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8701667/ /pubmed/34948815 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413206 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Quinn, Emilee L.
Ortiz, Kate
Titzer, Laura
Houston-Shimizu, Barb
Jones-Smith, Jessica
Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title_full Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title_fullStr Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title_full_unstemmed Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title_short Healthy Food Environments in Food Pantries: Lessons Learned from a Sodium Reduction Intervention
title_sort healthy food environments in food pantries: lessons learned from a sodium reduction intervention
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701667/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948815
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413206
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