Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores

McKerchar, Christina; Smith, Moira; Gage, Ryan; Williman, Jonathan; Abel, Gillian; Lacey, Cameron; Ni Mhurchu, Cliona; Signal, Louise

doi:10.3390/nu12072143

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Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores

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Louise Signal

Department of Population Health, University of Otago, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington 6242, New Zealand

Māori and Indigenous Health Institute, Department of the Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

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National Institute for Health Innovation, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Nutrients 2020, 12(7), 2143; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12072143

Received: 12 June 2020 / Revised: 3 July 2020 / Accepted: 14 July 2020 / Published: 18 July 2020

(This article belongs to the Section Nutrition and Public Health)

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Abstract

Increasing rates of childhood obesity worldwide has focused attention on the obesogenic food environment. This paper reports an analysis of children’s interactions with food in convenience stores. Kids’Cam was a cross-sectional study conducted from July 2014 to June 2015 in New Zealand in which 168 randomly selected children aged 11–14 years old wore a wearable camera for a 4–day period. In this ancillary study, images from children who visited a convenience store were manually coded for food and drink availability. Twenty-two percent of children (n = 37) visited convenience stores on 62 occasions during the 4-day data collection period. Noncore items dominated the food and drinks available to children at a rate of 8.3 to 1 (means were 300 noncore and 36 core, respectively). The food and drinks marketed in-store were overwhelmingly noncore and promoted using accessible placement, price offers, product packaging, and signage. Most of the 70 items purchased by children were noncore foods or drinks (94.6%), and all of the purchased food or drink subsequently consumed was noncore. This research highlights convenience stores as a key source of unhealthy food and drink for children, and policies are needed to reduce the role of convenience stores in the obesogenic food environment. View Full-Text

Keywords: food availability; food marketing; childhood obesity; convenience stores; wearable cameras

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MDPI and ACS Style

McKerchar, C.; Smith, M.; Gage, R.; Williman, J.; Abel, G.; Lacey, C.; Ni Mhurchu, C.; Signal, L. Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores. Nutrients 2020, 12, 2143. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12072143

AMA Style

McKerchar C, Smith M, Gage R, Williman J, Abel G, Lacey C, Ni Mhurchu C, Signal L. Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores. Nutrients. 2020; 12(7):2143. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12072143

Chicago/Turabian Style

McKerchar, Christina, Moira Smith, Ryan Gage, Jonathan Williman, Gillian Abel, Cameron Lacey, Cliona Ni Mhurchu, and Louise Signal. 2020. "Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children’s Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores" Nutrients 12, no. 7: 2143. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12072143

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