Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb 7;19(3):1860.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031860.

Development of a Nutrition Environment Assessment Tool for Latino Ethnic Stores

Jenny L Baier  1 , Shelly M Palmer  2 , Donna M Winham  3 , Mack C Shelley  4
Affiliations

Development of a Nutrition Environment Assessment Tool for Latino Ethnic Stores

Jenny L Baier et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The objectives were to: (1) adapt the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) to better culturally fit small Latino grocery stores (tiendas) in Iowa; (2) assess the newly adapted Latino NEMS-S for inter-rater and test-retest reliability; and (3) compare Latino and original NEMS-S summary scores. This pilot instrument, containing culturally appropriate foods from the original NEMS-S and 2015 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, underwent two rounds of formative evaluation. The new instrument and scoring protocol were applied to a random sample of 42 of 81 possible tiendas in Iowa. Cohen's kappa was used to assess inter-rater and test-retest reliability for availability and quality of indicator food items (total scores and food category sub scores). There were no differences in summary scores for inter-rater or test-retest reliability using paired t-tests. Inter-rater agreement was high (range 0.82-1.00; p < 0.001). Tiendas averaged 42.0 ± 7.5 of 57 possible points on the Latino NEMS-S, but only 12.0 ± 4.6 of 54 points on the original NEMS-S (p < 0.001). The Latino NEMS-S is a reliable tool for assessing the food environment within Iowa tiendas. Culturally specific instruments can describe diverse food environments more accurately and guide public health nutrition interventions within communities.

Keywords: Hispanic; Mexican American; NEMS-S; culture; dietary guidelines; ethnic market; food desert; food environment; food retail; reliability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the study design, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of tiendas in Iowa evaluated by the Latino NEMS-S.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Latino NEMS-S and original NEMS-S total scores for each tienda (n = 42).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Glanz K., Sallis J.F., Saelens B.E., Frank L.D. Nutrition environment measures survey in stores (NEMS-S): Development and evaluation. Am. J. Prev. Med. 2007;32:282–289. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2006.12.019. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martin K.S., Havens E., Boyle K.E., Matthews G., Schilling E.A., Harel O., Ferris A.M. If you stock it, will they buy it? Healthy food availability and customer purchasing behavior within corner stores in Hartford, CT, USA. Public Health Nutr. 2012;15:1973–1978. doi: 10.1017/S1368980011003387. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Glanz K., Johnson L., Yaroch A.L., Phillips M., Ayala G.X., Davis E.L. Measures of retail food store environments and sales: Review and implications for healthy eating initiatives. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 2016;48:280–288. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2016.02.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nielsen S., Popkin B. Patterns and trends in food portion sizes, 1977–1998. JAMA. 2003;289:450–453. doi: 10.1001/jama.289.4.450. - DOI - PubMed
    1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. U.S. Department of Agriculture . Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 6th ed. U.S. Government Printing Office; Washington, DC, USA: 2005.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources