Development and Validation of a Set of Instruments to Measure Food Environments

Jacqueline Araneda-Flores, Patricio Oliva Moresco, Gladys Quezada-Figueroa, Luz Lobos-Fernandez, Barbara Leyton and Anna Christina Pinheiro ()
Additional contact information
Jacqueline Araneda-Flores: Departamento de Nutrición y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y de los Alimentos, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chillán 3780000, Chile
Patricio Oliva Moresco: Departamento de Nutrición y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y de los Alimentos, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chillán 3780000, Chile
Gladys Quezada-Figueroa: Departamento de Nutrición y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y de los Alimentos, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chillán 3780000, Chile
Luz Lobos-Fernandez: Departamento de Nutrición y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y de los Alimentos, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chillán 3780000, Chile
Barbara Leyton: Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8330015, Chile
Anna Christina Pinheiro: Carrera de Nutrición y Dietética, Facultad de Medicina-Clínica Alemana, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago 7550000, Chile

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-10

Abstract: Background: There is worldwide interest in measuring local food environments (FEs). The aim of this study was to develop and validate a set of instruments to evaluate FEs in Chile. Methods: Based on the development and validation of four instruments to measure FEs, a literature review, an evaluation by experts, and the implementation of a pilot tool in the FEs of schoolchildren from nine public schools in the commune of Chillán, Chile, were used. Results: A tool to evaluate FEs was provided, based on three dimensions: availability, variety, and advertising of healthy foods. A total of 1928 foods points of purchase were evaluated. The reliability was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. Some 74% of the foods’ points of purchase were store locations. The reliability of the four instruments was high to acceptable (store: 0.90; institution: 0.77; street food: 0.74; restaurant: 0.68). Unhealthy foods were highlighted by the scores obtained: store (6.08 ± 4.07; range: 0–13), restaurant (3.95 ± 1.75; range: 0–10), street food (1.18 ± 1.56; range: 0–7), and institution FEs (3.38 ± 2.78; range: 0–9). Conclusions: The results of this tool can provide information to governments for incorporating structural measures to ensure adequate availability, variety, and advertising of healthy foods in different FEs.

Keywords: food environment; Chile; nutrition; evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13806/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13806/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:13806-:d:951391

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().