Development and Implementation: B’More Healthy Communities for Kid’s Store and Wholesaler Intervention

Abstract

Higher rates of obesity and obesity-related chronic disease are prevalent in communities where there is limited access to affordable, healthy food. The B’More Healthy Communities for Kids (BHCK) trial worked at multiple levels of the food environment including food wholesalers and corner stores to improve the surrounding community’s access to healthy food. The objective of this article is to describe the development and implementation of BHCK’s corner store and wholesaler interventions through formal process evaluation. Researchers evaluated each level of the intervention to assess reach, dose delivered, and fidelity. Corner store and wholesaler reach, dose delivered, and fidelity were measured by number of interactions, promotional materials distributed, and maintenance of study materials, respectively. Overall, the corner store implementation showed moderate reach, dose delivered, and high fidelity. The wholesaler intervention was implemented with high reach, dose, and fidelity. The program held 355 corner store interactive sessions and had 9,347 community member interactions, 21% of which were with children between the ages of 10 and 14 years. There was a 15% increase in corner store promoted food stocking during Wave 1 and a 17% increase during Wave 2. These findings demonstrate a successfully implemented food retailer intervention in a low-income urban setting.

A systematic review of factors that influence food store owner and manager decision making and ability or willingness to use choice architecture and marketing mix strategies to encourage healthy consumer purchases in the United States, 2005–2017

“…Extracted outcome results for all studies included within the systematic review of literature are available in a supplementary table. Research included in the review was in majority specific to urban ( n = 23) [44–66] rather than rural food store environments ( n = 7) [67–73], and one study included both urban and rural samples [74].…”

The Impact of a Multi-Level Multi-Component Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention on Healthy Food Availability, Sales, and Purchasing in a Low-Income Urban Area

“…At the wholesaler level, managers were asked to stock healthier products, such as whole grain products, fruits and vegetables, and low-fat, low-sugar snacks and beverages (BHCK promoted items) [ 14 ]. Promoted foods were selected on the basis of formative research in low income areas of Baltimore city with adolescents, parents, small food source owners and local wholesalers [ 15 ].…”

“…Most promoted foods and beverages selected were available year-round. In corner stores and carryouts, owners were incentivized to stock and/or prepare foods using BHCK promoted items [ 14 , 16 ]. BHCK products were promoted in the stores through posters, shelf labels and signage.…”

Partnering with carryouts: implementation of a food environment intervention targeting youth obesity

“…However, in community-based interventions, especially in large urban populations, it is usually impossible to track specific community members. We have successfully used our current method before to define reach in community-based interventions [17]. Another limitation of this intervention was that social media did not target youth, which could be particularly important for promoting healthy foods in this age group.…”

“…The success of the intervention was defined by how close each process evaluation measure was to reaching the high standard, which has been used elsewhere [17]. Optimal intervention delivery was defined as meeting or exceeding the high standard (i.e.…”