An evaluation of the impact of a restrictive retail food environment intervention in a rural community pharmacy setting.

Leia M Minaker,Nghia Nguyen,Catherine L Mah,Sunday Azagba,Graham Mackenzie,Brian E Cook,Dana Lee Olstad

doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3281-9

Abstract

BackgroundSugar-sweetened beverage consumption is associated with morbidity and mortality. The retail food environment influences food and beverage purchasing and consumption. This study assesses the impact of a community pharmacy’s removal of sweet beverages on overall community sales of carbonated soft drinks (CSD) in a rural setting. We also examined whether the pharmacy intervention affected CSD sales in the town’s other food stores.MethodsWeekly CSD sales data were acquired from the three food retailers in the town of Baddeck, Nova Scotia (January 1, 2013 to May 8, 2015, n = 123 weeks). Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) analysis was used to analyse the interrupted time series data and estimate the impact of the pharmacy intervention (September 11, 2014) on overall CSD sales at the community level. Data were analysed in 2015.ResultsBefore the intervention, the pharmacy accounted for approximately 6 % of CSD sales in the community. After the intervention, declines in total weekly average community CSD sales were not statistically significantly. CSD sales at the other food stores did not increase after the pharmacy intervention.ConclusionsThis study was among the first to examine the impact of a restrictive retail food environment intervention, and found a non-significant decline in CSD sales at the community level. It is the first study to examine a retail food environment intervention in a community pharmacy. Pharmacies may have an important role to play in creating healthy retail food environments.

Highlights

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is associated with morbidity and mortality
Pre-intervention, the pharmacy accounted for approximately 6 % of total carbonated soft drinks (CSD) sales ($CAD) in Baddeck
Weekly CSD sales were significantly lower in non-peak weeks relative to summer peak weeks

Summary

Introduction

The retail food environment influences food and beverage purchasing and consumption. New WHO guidelines recommend adults and children consume less than 10 % of their total energy intake as free sugars, and encourage a further reduction to below 5 % (about 25 g or 6 teaspoons) for additional health benefits [5]. To contextualize this amount, one 355 mL can of Coca-Cola contains 39 g Kremers notes that energy-balance related behaviours (such as sugar consumption) can be governed by environmental cues through automatic environment-behavior links rather than through individuals’ conscious processing and deliberate choices [18]. Retail food environment interventions aim to shift environmental cues towards health-promoting dietary intake, and away from disease-promoting dietary intake

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