What are the ultimate evaluation questions to be answered by the UNCFRP?

Q1. Have children and adolescents’ average daily caloric consumption decreased over time and if so in which food and beverage categories?

Individual child dietary intake data (NHANES) will be used to examine if there are significant caloric changes, by relevant food categories as well as in total calories. We will also explore other commercial data sets with dietary intake data but NHANES is the official dietary intake data set at this time.

 

Q2. Have caloric purchases of foods and beverages in categories of greatest concern for children and adolescents (e.g. junk foods) decreased over time?

Commercial (household-level and store-level) food purchase data will be linked with nutrition label information to determine caloric purchases in food and beverage categories over time. UNCFRP has selected the commercial databases they will review and use for year 1. The household-level food purchase data to be used include Nielsen’s Homescan; the store-level food purchase data to be used include Nielsen’s Scantrack; and the nutrition label data will be obtained from Gladson e-Ecommerce and Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics.

 

Q3. Can any observed caloric consumption and/or purchase changes be attributed to HWCF vs. non-HWCF companies?

The commercial data will allow attribution of calories purchased to HWCF vs. non-HWCF companies. However, attribution of caloric consumption to the companies will depend on how the commercial and NHANES data are conceptually linked, but will likely involve all of the databases mentioned above.

 

Thus the UNCFRP will study both changes in each of these complex sets of measures at the food/beverage group and overall levels

1. Average daily calories consumed at the individual level (by race-ethnic-income subpopulations as sample sizes allow);
2. Calories purchased monthly and annually at the household-level for households with children (by racial/ethnic and income-specific households with children).