TY - JOUR
T1 - B’more healthy corner stores for moms and kids
T2 - Identifying optimal behavioral economic strategies to increase WIC redemptions in small Urban corner stores
AU - Wensel, Caroline R.
AU - Trude, Angela C.B.
AU - Poirier, Lisa
AU - Alghamdi, Riyad
AU - Trujillo, Antonio
AU - Steeves, Elizabeth Anderson
AU - Paige, David
AU - Gittelsohn, Joel
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Duke-UNC USDA Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research under grant 59-5000-4-0062 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or its Economic Research Service or its Food and Nutrition Service.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) redemption rates have been declining in many low-income urban settings, potentially related to aspects of the food environment. B’more Healthy Corner Stores for Moms and Kids was a feasibility trial in Baltimore City that aimed to test multiple behavioral economic (BE) strategies in 10 corner stores (intervention = eight stores, comparison = two stores), to evaluate their influence on the stocking and redemptions of WIC foods. Tested strategies included in-person storeowner training, point of purchase promotion, product placement, and grouping of products in a display. All four strategies were feasible and implemented with high reach, dose delivered, and fidelity. Additionally, text messaging was found to be an acceptable form of intervention reinforcement for storeowners. Analyses to assess change in stocking of WIC foods, total sales of WIC foods, and sales of WIC foods to WIC clients, revealed consistent positive changes after implementation of the store owner training strategy, while changes after the implementation of other strategies were mixed. Furthermore, WIC food sales to WIC clients significantly increased after the simultaneous implementation of two strategies, compared to one (p > 0.05). Results suggest that store owner training was the most influential strategy and that the implementation of more BE strategies does not necessarily lead to proportional increases in stocking and sales. Selected BE strategies appear to be an effective way of increasing stocking and sales of WIC foods in small urban food stores.
AB - Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) redemption rates have been declining in many low-income urban settings, potentially related to aspects of the food environment. B’more Healthy Corner Stores for Moms and Kids was a feasibility trial in Baltimore City that aimed to test multiple behavioral economic (BE) strategies in 10 corner stores (intervention = eight stores, comparison = two stores), to evaluate their influence on the stocking and redemptions of WIC foods. Tested strategies included in-person storeowner training, point of purchase promotion, product placement, and grouping of products in a display. All four strategies were feasible and implemented with high reach, dose delivered, and fidelity. Additionally, text messaging was found to be an acceptable form of intervention reinforcement for storeowners. Analyses to assess change in stocking of WIC foods, total sales of WIC foods, and sales of WIC foods to WIC clients, revealed consistent positive changes after implementation of the store owner training strategy, while changes after the implementation of other strategies were mixed. Furthermore, WIC food sales to WIC clients significantly increased after the simultaneous implementation of two strategies, compared to one (p > 0.05). Results suggest that store owner training was the most influential strategy and that the implementation of more BE strategies does not necessarily lead to proportional increases in stocking and sales. Selected BE strategies appear to be an effective way of increasing stocking and sales of WIC foods in small urban food stores.
KW - Behavioral economics
KW - Food environment
KW - Nutrition intervention
KW - Public health
KW - Underserved populations
KW - WIC
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph16010064
DO - 10.3390/ijerph16010064
M3 - Article
C2 - 30591654
AN - SCOPUS:85059223758
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 16
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 1
M1 - 64
ER -