Children's Food Store, Restaurant, and Home Food Environments and Their Relationship with Body Mass Index: A Pilot Study

• Published in: Ecology of food and nutrition Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 58 - 78
• Main Authors: Holsten, Joanna E, Compher, Charlene W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis Group 2012; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Child; Children; Children & youth; Commerce; Correlation analysis; Diet; Family Characteristics; feasibility; Feeding Behavior; Female; Food; food environment; Food Preferences; Height; Home; Humans; Male; Measurement; Nutrition; Nutrition Surveys; Nutritional Status; obesity; pilot; Pilot Projects; Restaurants; Satisfaction; surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 1543-5237; 0367-0244; 1543-5237
• DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2012.635572

This pilot research assessed the feasibility and utility of a study designed to examine the relationship between children's BMI and food store, restaurant, and home food environments. Home visits were conducted with sixth-grade children (N = 12). BMI z-scores were calculated with weight and height measurements. Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys evaluated children's food environments. The study protocol involved a feasible time duration, minimal missing data for primary variables, and participant satisfaction. Potential design problems included the homogeneous store environments and low restaurant exposure of the sample recruited from one school, and the adequacy of a single cross-sectional measure of the home environment.