Short-Form Audit Instrument for Assessing Corner Store Healthfulness. Issue 1 (January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: DeWeese, Robin S.; Todd, Michael; Karpyn, Allison; Yedidia, Michael J.; Kennedy, Michelle; Bruening, Meg; Wharton, Christopher M.; Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam
• Is Part Of: American journal of health promotion. Volume 32:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 224
• Page End: 232
• Publication Date: 2018-01
• Subjects: nutrition -- built environment -- nutrition audits -- food environment -- corner stores; Health promotion -- Periodicals; Health Promotion; Health promotion; Periodicals; Periodicals; 613.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0890117116679059
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0890-1171

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a valid and feasible short-form corner store audit tool (SCAT) that could be used in-store or over the phone to capture the healthfulness of corner stores. Design: Nonexperimental. Setting: Four New Jersey cities. Subjects: Random selection of 229 and 96 corner stores in rounds 1 and 2, respectively. Measures: An adapted version of the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Corner Stores (NEMS-CS) was used to conduct in-store audits. The 7-item SCAT was developed and used for round 2 phone audits. Analysis: Exploratory factor analysis and item response theory were used to develop the SCAT. Results: The SCAT was highly correlated with the adapted NEMS-CS ( r = .79). Short-form corner store audit tool scores placed stores in the same healthfulness categories as did the adapted NEMS-CS in 88% of the cases. Phone response matches indicated that store owners did not distinguish between 2% and low-fat milk and tended to round up the fruit and vegetable count to 5 if they had fewer varieties. Conclusion: The SCAT discriminates between higher versus lower healthfulness scores of corner stores and is feasible for use as a phone audit tool.