Field Validation of Commercially Available Food Retailer Data in the Netherlands.

Cesare Canalia,Jeroen Lakerveld,Maria Pinho,Joreintje Mackenbach

doi:10.3390/ijerph17061946

Abstract

The aim of this study was to validate a Dutch commercial dataset containing information on the types and locations of food retailers against field audit data. Field validation of a commercial dataset (“Locatus”) was conducted in February 2019. Data on the location and classification of food retailers were collected through field audits in 152 streets from four urban and four rural neighborhoods in the Netherlands. The classification of food retailers included eight types of grocery stores (e.g., supermarkets, bakeries) and four types of food outlets (e.g., cafés, take away restaurants). The commercial dataset in the studied area listed 322 food retailers, whereas the field audit counted 315 food retailers. Overall, the commercially available data showed “good” to “excellent” agreement statistics (>0.71) with field audit data for all three levels of analysis (i.e., location, classification and both combined) and across urban as well as rural areas. The commercial dataset under study provided an accurate description of the measured food environment. Therefore, policymakers and researchers should feel confident in using this commercial dataset as a source of secondary data.

Highlights

The food environment plays an important role in shaping dietary habits, and people’s health [1]
In the 152 selected streets, the Locatus dataset indicated 322 food retailers to be present, of which were located in urban areas and 46 were located in rural areas
Of the 322 food retailers listed, 5.3% were supermarkets, 0.6% were fruit and vegetable stores, 3.1% were bakeries, 6.8% were animal product stores, 2.5% were natural product stores, 1.9% were convenience stores, 4% were confectionery stores, 42.5% were restaurants, 10.2% were fast food restaurants, 6.8% were take away restaurants, and 16.1% were cafés

Summary

Introduction

The food environment plays an important role in shaping dietary habits, and people’s health [1]. Given the potential opportunities to improve population diets and health outcomes, there is increasing interest in studies on the influence of the food environment on dietary behaviors [4,5]. The majority of the studies that have examined the link between food environment and health-related outcomes have focused on the geographical availability or accessibility of food retailers in relation to where people live and/or work [5]. A greater availability and proximity to unhealthy food retailers has been associated with obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Greater distance to fast food/convenience shops and proximity to retailers

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