Measurement of availability and accessibility of food among youth

Availability and accessibility of foods are regarded as important determinants of food choice and nutrition behavior, because it makes sense that people -children as well as adults- tend to eat what is easily available and accessible to them. To study the relevance of availability and accessibility, good, i.e. valid and reliable, measures of availability and accessibility are needed. In a paper just published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity, we present and discuss the results of a systematic review of the psychometric properties of measures of food availability and accessibility among youth. A secondary objective was to assess how availability and accessibility were conceptualized in the included studies.
We reviewed studies studies published between January 2010 and March 2016 that reported on at least one psychometric property of a measure of availability and/or accessibility of food among youth were included.
A total of 20 studies were included. While 16 studies included measures of food availability, three included measures of both availability and accessibility; one study included a measure of accessibility only. Different conceptualizations of availability and accessibility were used across the studies. The measures aimed at assessing availability and/or accessibility in the home environment, the school, stores, childcare/early care and education services and restaurants. Most studies followed systematic steps in the development of the measures. The most common psychometrics tested for these measures were test-retest reliability and criterion validity. The majority of the measures had satisfactory evidence of reliability and/or validity. None of the included studies assessed the responsiveness of the measures.