Increased healthy food purchasing associated with exposure to carry‐out intervention in low‐income urban setting

Americans are eating out more frequently. This is particularly true in low‐income urban settings where residents commonly purchase foods at carry‐outs (non‐franchised food establishments selling ready to‐eat food and beverages for off‐premise consumption). Baltimore Healthy Carry‐outs, a three phase multi‐component environmental intervention, was conducted in four carry‐outs, with another four as matching comparisons (Feb – Sept 2011). To assess impact, intervention exposure assessment was conducted (n=186) and exposure scores were created to reflect the 24 intervention strategies. Linear and logistic regression analyses using cluster robust variance were used. Intervention carry‐out customers purchased 4.5 varieties of promoted healthy items while comparison customers purchased less than 1 item (p<0.001). There was a strong dose response relationship between the combined intervention exposure score (range 0–24) and the frequency of healthy food purchased (beta 0.38, CI 0.26–0.49). Among customers exposed to the intervention, there were increased odds of purchasing specific healthy food items, such as a turkey club sandwich (OR 1.54, p<0.0001), fruit cup (OR 1.37, p<0.0001), or cooked greens (OR 1.30, p<0.0001). An environmental intervention at carry‐outs was shown to effectively increase healthy food purchasing frequency among consumers. Grant Funding Source : Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Diabetes Research & Training Center