TY - JOUR
T1 - Real-life experiments in supermarkets to encourage healthy dietary-related behaviours
T2 - opportunities, challenges and lessons learned
AU - Vogel, Christina
AU - Dijkstra, Coosje
AU - Huitink, Marlijn
AU - Dhuria, Preeti
AU - Poelman, Maartje P.
AU - Mackenbach, Joreintje D.
AU - Crozier, Sarah
AU - Seidell, Jacob
AU - Baird, Janis
AU - Ball, Kylie
N1 - Funding Information: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research Programme (grant funding, 17/44/46), NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and University of Southampton. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, the UK Department of Health and Social Care or MRC. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - Background Supermarkets are the primary source of food for many people yet their full potential as a setting to encourage healthy dietary-related behaviours remains underutilised. Sharing the experiences from research groups who have worked with supermarket chains to evaluate strategies that promote healthy eating could improve the efficiency of building such relationships and enhance the design quality of future research studies. Methods A collective case study approach was used to synthesise experiences of engaging and sustaining researchcollaborations with national supermarket chains to test the effectiveness of health-focused in-store interventions. The collective narrative covers studies conducted in three high-income countries: Australia, the Netherlands and theUnited Kingdom. Results We have distilled our experiences and lessons learned into six recommendations for conducting high quality public health research with commercial supermarket chains. These include: (i) using personal contacts, knowledge of supermarket activities and engaging executive management to establish a partnership and allowing time to build trust; (ii) using scientifically robust study designs with appropriate sample size calculations; (iii) formalising data exchange arrangements and allocating adequate resource for data extraction and re-categorisation; (iv) assessing effects at individual/households level where possible; (v) designing a mixed-methods process evaluation to measure intervention fidelity, dose and unintended consequences; and (vi) ensuring scientific independence through formal contract agreements. Conclusions Our collective experiences of working in non-financial partnerships with national supermarket chains could be useful for other research groups looking to develop and implement supermarket studies in an efficient manner. Further evidence from real-life supermarket interventions is necessary to identify sustainable strategies that can improve population diet and maintain necessary commercial outcomes.
AB - Background Supermarkets are the primary source of food for many people yet their full potential as a setting to encourage healthy dietary-related behaviours remains underutilised. Sharing the experiences from research groups who have worked with supermarket chains to evaluate strategies that promote healthy eating could improve the efficiency of building such relationships and enhance the design quality of future research studies. Methods A collective case study approach was used to synthesise experiences of engaging and sustaining researchcollaborations with national supermarket chains to test the effectiveness of health-focused in-store interventions. The collective narrative covers studies conducted in three high-income countries: Australia, the Netherlands and theUnited Kingdom. Results We have distilled our experiences and lessons learned into six recommendations for conducting high quality public health research with commercial supermarket chains. These include: (i) using personal contacts, knowledge of supermarket activities and engaging executive management to establish a partnership and allowing time to build trust; (ii) using scientifically robust study designs with appropriate sample size calculations; (iii) formalising data exchange arrangements and allocating adequate resource for data extraction and re-categorisation; (iv) assessing effects at individual/households level where possible; (v) designing a mixed-methods process evaluation to measure intervention fidelity, dose and unintended consequences; and (vi) ensuring scientific independence through formal contract agreements. Conclusions Our collective experiences of working in non-financial partnerships with national supermarket chains could be useful for other research groups looking to develop and implement supermarket studies in an efficient manner. Further evidence from real-life supermarket interventions is necessary to identify sustainable strategies that can improve population diet and maintain necessary commercial outcomes.
KW - Diet
KW - Food environments
KW - Public-private partnerships
KW - Supermarkets
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-023-01448-8
DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-023-01448-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 37340326
SN - 1479-5868
VL - 20
JO - international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity
JF - international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity
IS - 1
M1 - 73
ER -