Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, Director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering, the Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Matthew J. Cook, MPH is the CICATS webmaster and a research associate 2 in the Biomedical Informatics Division. He also maintains the CICATS social media accounts and CICATS Profiles.
Public Health Nutrition Highlights Study Conducted by CICATS Scholar
When it comes to offering healthy food in the local corner store, supply can impact demand, according to a study by University of Connecticut researchers. The study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, found that when corner stores stocked a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, customers were more likely to buy them.
A team of researchers led by Katie Martin, assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Allied Health Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and a CICATS K12 Scholar looked at the combination of customer shopping behavior and the availability of healthy foods within the stores.
The team conducted interviews with 372 customers shopping in 19 neighborhood corner stores in Hartford to ask about their food shopping behavior. They asked how frequently they shop at corner stores, and what types of food they typically buy there. Store inventories were also conducted to measure the availability and quality of healthy food.
Data analysis revealed that for each additional type of fruit or vegetable available in the store, the estimated odds of a customer purchasing fruits increased by 12 percent, and by 15 percent for vegetables. Customers receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP, formerly called Food Stamps) were almost twice as likely to purchase fruit, compared with those not receiving SNAP.
“Our results show that demand for healthy food is related to supply. These results can have practical benefits for organizations and municipalities working to improve corner stores in urban areas,” says Martin.
The study was a collaborative effort between the University of Connecticut Center for Public Health and Health Policy and the Hartford Food System, a non-profit organization working with corner stores to increase their supply of healthy food. Funding for the research was provided by the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation.
Portions of this Blog posting were contributed by Connie Cantor.
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