Abstract
BackgroundProximity of food stores is associated with dietary intake and obesity; however, individuals frequently shop at stores that are not the most proximal. Little is known about other factors that influence food store choice. The current research describes the development of the Food Store Selection Questionnaire (FSSQ) and describes preliminary results of field testing the questionnaire.MethodsDevelopment of the FSSQ involved a multidisciplinary literature review, qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts, and expert and community reviews. Field testing consisted of 100 primary household food shoppers (93% female, 64% African American), in rural and urban Arkansas communities, rating FSSQ items as to their importance in store choice and indicating their top two reasons. After eliminating 14 items due to low mean importance scores and high correlations with other items, the final FSSQ questionnaire consists of 49 items.ResultsItems rated highest in importance were: meat freshness; store maintenance; store cleanliness; meat varieties; and store safety. Items most commonly rated as top reasons were: low prices; proximity to home; fruit/vegetable freshness; fruit/vegetable variety; and store cleanliness.ConclusionsThe FSSQ is a comprehensive questionnaire for detailing key reasons in food store choice. Although proximity to home was a consideration for participants, there were clearly other key factors in their choice of a food store. Understanding the relative importance of these different dimensions driving food store choice in specific communities may be beneficial in informing policies and programs designed to support healthy dietary intake and obesity prevention.
Highlights
Proximity of food stores is associated with dietary intake and obesity; individuals frequently shop at stores that are not the most proximal
The questionnaire was developed with the goal that it could be used in a broad range of communities to identify and compare the key factors in community members’ food store choice
Three items with low mean scores were retained because investigators were concerned that the insufficient availability of these options in the relatively rural region in which the questionnaire was administered precluded determination that these factors were unrelated to selection of food store for other locations in which these options are available
Summary
Proximity of food stores is associated with dietary intake and obesity; individuals frequently shop at stores that are not the most proximal. Proximity of food stores, supermarkets, has been positively linked with healthful dietary intake [4,5], and obesity [6,7,8], yet in other research, no association or negative associations have among low-income residents [18,19] or among Latinas [20]; a more comprehensive description of the factors influencing food store choice in a broader sample of individuals has not yet been conducted. The first phase of this study was to develop a descriptive questionnaire regarding the importance of key factors on food store selection which would be appropriate for use in a range of communities. A second phase was to field-test the questionnaire to gather initial information about the relative importance of various factors in food store choice in a diverse group with significant representation of populations at high risk for obesity
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