Government data v. ground observation for food-environment assessment: businesses missed and misreported by city and state inspection records. Issue 8 (4th June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lucan, Sean C; Maroko, Andrew R; Abrams, Courtney; Rodriguez, Noemi; Patel, Achint N; Gjonbalaj, Ilirjan; Schechter, Clyde B; Elbel, Brian
• Is Part Of: Public health nutrition. Volume 23:Issue 8(2020)
• Page Start: 1414
• Page End: 1427
• Publication Date: 2020-06-04
• Subjects: Food environment, -- Food stores, -- Restaurants, -- Street vendors, -- Mobile food vendors, -- Secondary data, -- Validation, -- Urban; Nutrition -- Periodicals; Nutrition policy -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; 613.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980019002982
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-9800

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: To assess the accuracy of government inspection records, relative to ground observation, for identifying businesses offering foods/drinks. Design: Agreement between city and state inspection records v . ground observations at two levels: businesses and street segments. Agreement could be 'strict' (by business name, e.g. 'Rizzo's') or 'lenient' (by business type, e.g. 'pizzeria'); using sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) for businesses and using sensitivity, PPV, specificity and negative predictive value (NPV) for street segments. Setting: The Bronx and the Upper East Side (UES), New York City, USA. Participants: All food/drink-offering businesses on sampled street segments ( n 154 in the Bronx, n 51 in the UES). Results: By 'strict' criteria, sensitivity and PPV of government records for food/drink-offering businesses were 0·37 and 0·57 in the Bronx; 0·58 and 0·60 in the UES. 'Lenient' values were 0·40 and 0·62 in the Bronx; 0·60 and 0·62 in the UES. Sensitivity, PPV, specificity and NPV of government records for street segments having food/drink-offering businesses were 0·66, 0·73, 0·84 and 0·79 in the Bronx; 0·79, 0·92, 0·67, and 0·40 in the UES. In both areas, agreement varied by business category: restaurants; 'food stores'; and government-recognized other storefront businesses ('gov. OSB', i.e. dollar stores, gas stations, pharmacies). Additional business categories – 'other OSB' (barbers, laundromats, newsstands, etc.) and street vendors – were absent from government records; together, they represented 28·4 % of all food/drink-offering businesses in the Bronx, 22·2 % in the UES ('other OSB' and street vendors were sources of both healthful and less-healthful foods/drinks in both areas). Conclusions: Government records frequently miss or misrepresent businesses offering foods/drinks, suggesting caveats for food-environment assessments using such records.