Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Retail food environments research: Promising future with more work to be done

  • Closing Commentary
  • Published:
Canadian Journal of Public Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As members of the scientific committee for the Food Environments in Canada conference, we reflect on the current state of food environments research in Canada. We are very encouraged that the field is growing and there have been many collaborative efforts to link researchers in Canada, including the 2015 Food Environments in Canada Symposium and Workshop. We believe there are 5 key challenges the field will need to collectively address: theory and causality; replication and extension; consideration of rural, northern and vulnerable populations; policy analysis; and intervention research. In addressing the challenges, we look forward to working together to conduct more sophisticated, complex and community-driven food environments research in the future.

Résumé

En tant que membres du comité scientifique de la conférence « Food Environments in Canada », nous réfléchissons à l’état actuel de la recherche sur les environnements alimentaires au pays. Nous sommes très encouragés par la croissance du domaine et par les nombreux efforts concertés pour établir des liens entre les chercheurs à l’échelle nationale, dont le colloque et l’atelier « Food Environments in Canada » de 2015. Nous croyons qu’il y a cinq grands défis à relever collectivement dans ce domaine: la théorie et la causalité; la répétition et la vulgarisation des résultats; la prise en compte des populations rurales, nordiques et vulnérables; l’analyse des politiques; et la recherche d’intervention. Pour aborder ces défis, nous envisageons avec intérêt de travailler ensemble à mener des études de recherche sur les environnements alimentaires plus élaborées, plus complexes et plus axées sur les communautés à l’avenir.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Minaker LM, Shuh A, Olstad DL, Engler-Stringer R, Black JL, Mah CL. Retail food environments research in Canada: A scoping review. Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1):eS4–eS13. doi:10.17269/CJPH.107.5344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Caspi CE, Sorensen G, Subramanian SV, Kawachi I. The local food environment and diet: A systematic review. Health Place 2012;18(5):1172–87. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.05.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Engler-Stringer R, Le H, Gerrard A, Muhajarine N. The community and consumer food environment and children’s diet: A systematic review. BMC Public Health 2014;14(1):1. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Saelens BE, Glanz K, Sallis JF, Frank LD. Nutrition Environment Measures Study in Restaurants (NEMS-R): Development and evaluation. Am J Prev Med 2007;32(4):273–81. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2006.12.022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Roux AVD. The study of group-level factors in epidemiology: Rethinking variables, study designs, and analytical approaches. Epidemiol Rev 2004; 26(1):104–11. doi:10.1093/epirev/mxh006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Food Environment Assessment Manual. Health Canada, In Press.

  7. Le H, Engler-Stringer R, Muhajarine N. Walkable home neighbourhood food environment and children’s overweight and obesity: Proximity, density or price? Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1):eS42–eS47. doi:10.17269/CJPH. 107.5347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lebel A, Noreau D, Tremblay L, Oberlé C, Girard-Gadreau M, Duguay M, Block JP. Identifying rural food deserts: Methodological considerations for food environment interventions. Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1): eS21–eS26. doi:10.17269/CJPH.107.5353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Open Science Collaboration. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science 2015;349(6251):aac4716. doi:10.1126/science.aac4716.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mercille G, Richard L, Gauvin L, Kestens Y, Shatenstein B, Daniel M, Payette H. The food environment and diet quality of urban-dwelling older women and men: Assessing the moderating role of diet knowledge. Can J Public Health 2016; 107 (Suppl 1):eS34–eS41. doi:10.17269/CJPH. 107.5309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Polsky JY, Moineddin R, Glazier RH, Dunn JR, Booth GL. Relative and absolute availability of fast-food restaurants in relation to the development of diabetes: A population-based cohort study. Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1):eS27–eS33. doi:10.17269/CJPH.107.5312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Forsyth A, Lytle L, Van Riper D. Finding food: Issues and challenges in using Geographic Information Systems to measure food access. J Transport Land Use 2010;3(1):43–65. doi:10.5198/jtlu.v3i1.105.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Skinner K, Burnett K, Martin D, Williams P, Stothart C, LeBlanc J, et al. Challenges in assessing food environments in northern and remote communities in Canada. Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1):eS60–eS63. doi:10.17269/CJPH.107.5324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mah C, Cook B, Rideout K, Minaker LM. Policy options for healthier retail food environments in city-regions. Can J Public Health 2016;107 (Suppl 1): eS64–eS67. doi:10.17269/CJPH.107.5343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Petticrew M, Cummins S, Ferrell C, Findlay A, Higgins C, Hoy C, et al., Natural experiments: An underused tool for public health? Public Health 2005; 119(751–57):751. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2004.11.008.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Daniel Fuller PhD

  2. Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, Canada

    Daniel Fuller PhD, Rachel Engler-Stringer PhD & Nazeem Muhajarine PhD

  3. Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, S7N 2Z4, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Rachel Engler-Stringer PhD & Nazeem Muhajarine PhD

Authors
  1. Daniel Fuller PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rachel Engler-Stringer PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nazeem Muhajarine PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Engler-Stringer PhD.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fuller, D., Engler-Stringer, R. & Muhajarine, N. Retail food environments research: Promising future with more work to be done. Can J Public Health 107 (Suppl 1), eS68–eS70 (2016). https://doi.org/10.17269/CJPH.107.5622

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.17269/CJPH.107.5622

Key words

Mots Clés

Search

Navigation