Dr. Glanz and staff have developed a survey on the perceived nutrition environment (NEMS-P). Unlike other NEMS tools, NEMS-P is not an observational measure – it is an instrument to evaluate the perceived nutrition environment.
Survey items cover the following constructs: community nutrition environment, consumer nutrition environment, home food environment, food shopping behaviors, eating behaviors, and background characteristics.
Note:
To clarify the scoring for store access and restaurant access:
The NEMS-P scoring guidance is in Table 1 in the linked paper. The direction/meaning of higher scores generally means greater access to nutritious options or a higher ranking for the motivating factor in the item. For items worded in reverse, the scores should be reversed. Some of these are noted as such in the footnotes, but some of the multi-item constructs don’t clearly ‘call that out.’
Also, please note that in Table 1 in the article, there are minor mistakes regarding the total scores for access to stores (should be 14, not 16) and restaurants (should be 11, not 12).
ACCESS TO STORES
There are 4 items; the first has a score of 1 or 2, and the other 3 have 1 to 4. Thus, the (correct) total possible scores are 4 – 14.
How do you travel….
- 2 points for driving your own car
- 1 point for all other choices
How long would it take you to walk…
- 10 minutes or less (4 points)
- 11 to 20 minutes (3 points)
- 21 to 30 minutes (2 points)
- More than 30 minutes (1 point)
How important are each of the following factors in your decision to shop at the store where you buy most of your food?
- Near your home (1 to 4 points, with very important = 4 points)
- Near or on the way to other places where you spend time (1 to 4 points, with very important = 4 points)
EXAMPLES – access to stores
So, if a person drives to the store they usually go to (2 points), it’s 10 minutes or less away (4 points), and it is very important that it is near their home (4 points) and very important that it is near or on the way… (4 points), they will get a score of 14.
If they walk (1 pt), it takes > 30 minutes (1 pt), and it’s not at all important that it’s near their home (1 pt) or near/on the way to other places (1 pt), they will get a score of 4
ACCESS TO RESTAURANTS
There 3 items, the first two have scores 1 to 4 and the third has a score of 1 to 3. Thus the (correct) total possible scores are 3 – 11.
How long would it take you to walk… [2 questions – fast-food restaurant & sit-down restaurant]
- 10 minutes or less (4 points)
- 11 to 20 minutes (3 points)
- 21 to 30 minutes (2 points)
- More than 30 minutes (1 point)
The question about convenience is later in the survey, where there are items rating the importance of various features of restaurants –
When you eat out at a restaurant or get take-out food, how important to you is…?
There is a 3-point response option to “convenience”
- not at all (1 point), somewhat (2 points), very (3 points)
The composite score of access to restaurants follows a similar pattern as access to stores. Also note that some researchers don’t use all of the items/constructs, and that is fine if you don’t need them for the purpose of your study.
Access the journal HERE
Access the journal .PDF HERE