Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109375

Donald Diego Rose, PhD, Community Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street ; Suite 2300, New Orleans, LA 70112, 504 988-5391, diego@tulane.edu and Heather Hartline-Grafton, MPH, RD, Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2301, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Public health researchers and practitioners have long appreciated the importance of environmental conditions in the determination of toxic illnesses and infectious diseases. Recent evidence suggests that environmental factors may also play a prominent role in affecting health behaviors, such as dietary choice, that are associated with chronic diseases. In this presentation we review evidence from the marketing, consumer economics, and public health disciplines that explores the role of environments in shaping consumer food choices. The marketing literature has produced a number of studies assessing how manipulation of in-store (particularly supermarket) environments affects consumer purchases. Results from experimental designs have shown that shelf space and location as well as special displays have independent and positive effects on sales of particular food items. Price reduction strategies are also routinely used in supermarkets to promote product sales. There are strong theoretical foundations and ample applied research in consumer economics to support such strategies. Newer experimental studies in the public health literature have also shown that reducing the price of healthy food choices in school and worksite vending machines, increases the consumption of these items. Recent work in public health and nutrition has also documented the influence of neighborhood environmental factors on food choices; in particular, access to supermarkets has been positively associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption. The presentation closes with some suggestions for how techniques in environmental exposure assessment could be applied to this growing area of research.

Learning Objectives:

1)To review the evidence on the role of environments in shaping consumer food choices
• To describe how techniques in environmental exposure assessment could be applied to understanding the obesity epidemic.

Keywords: Environmental Health Hazards, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.