Advancing Food as Medicine in the Retail Setting

Over half of the American population, over 117 million individuals, have at least one or more preventable chronic diseases that are related to poor eating and exercise habits. This includes cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and poor bone health (Schap, 2016). The expansion of Food as Medicine programming in grocery stores is predicted to impact consumer food choices. Food retailers are trailing nutrition-related programs to understand how they can provide solutions to change eating habits (FMI, 2019) as more consumers shift their dietary habits and mindsets to be more focused on how food choices can affect health status. This project aimed to evaluate whether placing nutrition educational materials in ten Food City pharmacies in southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee would provide consumer guidance in making food choices in the grocery store, specifically for populations looking to follow a low-carbohydrate diet or a heart-healthy diet. A pilot passive quasi-experimental design was created to determine if there was a product lift of the promoted products on the nutrition educational materials. Stores with both the resource racks and bag stuffers at the counters saw a 13.38% increase in carbohydrate-aware items and 1.04% in heart-healthy items. Stores that had bag stuffers only at the pharmacy counters saw a 10.55% increase in carbohydrate-aware items and a -0.11% decrease in heart-healthy items. Comparison stores saw a 11.19% increase in carbohydrate-aware items and a -0.48% decrease in heart-healthy items. This intervention was successful as it provided real world significance in product lift as well as it provided insight into future program development and modifications for future resources.