Topic: Obesity, Nutrition/Diet
Target Population: Adults
Sector: Community-Based
This program is for residents and store owners in communities with low income where fast food restaurants and convenience stores are the primary food sources.
Baltimore Healthy Stores (BHS), a community-based program, is designed to improve the nutrition environment in communities of low income by targeting convenience store customers' behaviors and owners' practices (e.g., stocking and availability of particular foods). Health education and point-of-purchase marketing strategies are used to increase the availability of and access to healthy foods and to improve consumers' knowledge of and skills regarding healthy food selection and preparation.
Results of a pretest / posttest study indicate that shelf labels increased intervention participant's purchases of promoted foods and increased their healthy food preparation scores. The stocking of some promoted foods and sales of cooking spray increased in intervention stores, and self-efficacy scores for stocking some of the promoted foods increased in intervention stores but decreased in comparison stores. There were no significant differences between intervention and comparison participants in any psychosocial factors evaluated.
The BHS program seeks to improve nutrition/diet. This program is facilitated by store owners. The program involves five phases in which specific behavioral and environmental objectives are targeted, and particular foods are promoted using point-of-purchase marketing (e.g., incentive cards, posters, fliers, shelf labels). Brief, interactive nutrition education sessions that include taste testing are held in stores, and longer sessions are conducted at local community centers and include cooking demonstrations. The five phases cover these topics:
Store owners are asked to stock minimum quantities of promoted foods during each phase and are given small monetary incentives to cover initial stocking costs. In addition, they receive a nutrition education booklet to improve their nutrition knowledge; cultural guidelines to assist store owners in creating better relationships with community members; and additional guidelines for food purchasing, stocking, and placement in their stores.
The BHS program research study was conducted in 2005 and 2006. The Healthy Stores intervention has also been implemented in Hawaii, Apache Reservations in Arizona, Ontario First Nation Reserves, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Implementation training includes 1 to 2 days of base training and 1 day of booster training before the beginning of each new phase. Training sessions for store owners last 1 to 2 hours.
Considerations for implementing this program include hiring store staff to coordinate, oversee, and carry out activities; recruiting store owners and acquiring their buy-in; providing support and education for store owners; assisting store owners with stocking promoted foods; collaborating with food suppliers; finding time for training sessions; obtaining promotional materials and giveaways (e.g., lunch bags, water bottles); acquiring additional food for taste testing; creating recipe cards for promoted foods; and making time to hold in-store and community nutrition education sessions.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing the BHS program, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Each of the five phases lasts approximately 2 months. Implementation time for program staff and stores owners will vary by store.
Materials are free but will need to be printed, which could cost approximately $250 per store. Implementation costs could also include providing gift cards and/or small amounts of target foods to store owners; these costs will vary.
To move the BHS program to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation with a strong study design should be performed demonstrating positive effects lasting at least one year from the beginning of the program or at least six months from program completion.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact the Center for Human Nutrition at John Hopkins by mail Center for Human Nutrition, Room W2041A, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205-2170, call 1-410-502-6971, or visit: https://healthyfoodsystems.net/contact/
Gittelsohn, J., Song, H-J., Suratkar, S., Kumar, M., Henry, E. G., Sharma, S., …Anliker, J. (2010). An urban food store intervention positively impacts food-related psychosocial variable and food behaviors. Health Education & Behavior, 37(3), 390-402. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198109343886
Song, H. J., Gittelsohn, J., Kim, M., Suratkar, S., Sharma, S., & Anliker, J. A. (2009). A corner store intervention in a low income urban community is associated with increased availability and sales of some healthy foods. Public Health Nutrition, 12(11), 2060-2067. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980009005242
Gittelsohhn, J., Suratkar, S., Song, H-J., Sacher, S., Rajan, R., Rasooly, I. R., …Anliker, J. A. (2010). Process evaluation of Baltimore Healthy Stores: A pilot health intervention program with supermarkets and corner stores in Baltimore City. Health Promotion Practice, 11(5), 723-732. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839908329118
