2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

324933
Do Healthy Corner Stores maintain improvements after the completion of an intervention?


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

Tracy Thompson, MPH Candidate, Institute for Health Care Studies, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI
Lara Jaskiewicz, PhD, MBA, MPH, School of Public, Nonprofit, and Health Administration, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Introduction: Healthy corner store projects have multiplied throughout the US in an attempt to increase access to healthier foods in low income neighborhoods. Some of these projects have shown positive changes during the project intervention period, often one to two years. Few studies have examined how well these changes have been sustained after the project ended and support ceased.

Methods: In this study, three stores that participated in healthy corner store pilot project were re-visited twenty months after staff and resource support ended. Each store was measured using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey-Stores at three time points: prior to intervention, at the end of intervention, and 20 months following intervention end.

Results: Two of three stores were shown to sustain and even increase their healthy food scores as measured by a modified Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores.

Discussion: Store owner enthusiasm for the project appears to be an important factor for sustaining or increasing changes. These results suggest that healthy corner store programs may continue to be successful in increasing access to healthy foods in low income neighborhoods even after project funding has ended.

Learning Areas:

Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Discuss reasons some stores may continue to improve while others do not. Identify specific food categories that are most often improved and those that are not.

Keyword(s): Accessibility, Nutrition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Though my employment, I was partially responsible for a $1 million grant from BCBS that was used to investigate the impact of environment on childhood obesity. During that project, I initiated a Healthy Corner Store program. Since then, I have completed this follow up in my own time and without additional funding as part of my MPH practicum. I completed all of the data collection, analysis, and writing of the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3344.0: Addressing Food Security and Food Access by Improving Food Availability in Neighborhood Corner Stores and Small Food Stores