What influences Latino grocery shopping behavior? Perspectives on the small food store environment from managers and employees in San Diego, California.

To inform the design of a multilevel in-store intervention, this qualitative study utilized in-depth semistructured interviews with 28 managers and 10 employees of small-to-medium-sized Latino food stores (tiendas) in San Diego, California, to identify factors within the tienda that may influence Latino customers' grocery-shopping experiences and behaviors. Qualitative data analysis, guided by grounded theory, was performed using open coding. Results suggest that future interventions should focus on the physical (i.e., built structures) and social (i.e., economic and sociocultural) dimensions of store environments, including areas where the two dimensions interact, to promote the purchase of healthy food among customers.

Energy balance in adolescent girls: the trial of activity for adolescent girls cohort.

OBJECTIVES: To study correlates of change in BMI percentile and body fat among adolescent girls. METHODS: A longitudinal prospective study following 265 girls from the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) cohort measured in 8th grade and during 10 and 11th grade or 11th and 12th grade. Twice during 2009-2011 girls wore an accelerometer and completed a food frequency questionnaire and 7-day diary documenting trips and food eaten away from home and school. Physical activity, BMI, and percent body fat were objectively measured at each time point. RESULTS: Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) declined, but the change was not independently associated with changes in BMI percentile. Increased vigorous physical activity was associated with reductions in body fat. Diet was associated with both changes in BMI percentile and body fat. Girls who increased the percentage of caloric intake from snacks and desserts reduced their BMI percentile and body fat. CONCLUSIONS: Some relationships between energy balance behaviors and BMI and body composition were counter-intuitive. While it is plausible that vigorous physical activity would result in reductions of body fat, until more accurate methods are devised to measure diet, the precise contribution of dietary composition to health will be difficult to assess.

Out and about: association of the built environment with physical activity behaviors of adolescent females.

Locational data, logged on portable GPS units and matched with accelerometer data, was used to examine associations of the built environment with physical activity and sedentary behaviors of adolescent females. In a sample of 293 adolescent females aged 15 to 18 years old in Minneapolis and San Diego, the built environment around each GPS point and its corresponding sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity was examined using random intercept multinomial logistic regression models. The odds of higher physical activity intensity (3-level outcome: sedentary, light, MVPA) were higher in places with parks, schools, and high population density, during weekdays, and lower in places with more roads and food outlets. Understanding the places where physical activity and sedentary behaviors occur appears to be a promising strategy to clarify relationships and inform policy aimed at increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviors.