EXPERIENCES IN USING COMPUTERIZED SALES DATA TO EVALUATE A NUTRITION INTERVENTION PROGRAM

This study was primarily designed as a pilot to ascertain the feasibil ity of collecting and reducing sales data into manageable form for eva luation purposes. Twenty-one months of weekly sales data from two groc ery stores were acquired through a marketing research firm. Grocery sa les data appear to be useful in evaluating the impact of community-wid e nutrition intervention programs. It is extremely resource intensive to use computerized sales data for evaluation purposes; however, advan ces in technology are making this process less burdensome. The complex ities of assigning universal product coded (UPC) foods to specified st udy categories require careful attention. Use of outside resources is recommended. These include an intermediate processing center and a com puterized database of UPC foods and their nutritional values.