CI Webinar Series: Dr. Mikael Fogelholm
Grocery purchase data using loyalty cards – a novel method for dietary assessment and personalized feedback
Dr. Mikael Fogelholm
Professor in Public Health Nutrition at the University of Helsinki
His research activities has long been on the inter-relationships between diet, physical activity and obesity. During the recent years, he has mostly done research on the use of grocery pur-chase data in analyses of food selection and nutrition policies, and on lifestyle and obesity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mikael has also been in the project groups of the 2004 and 2012 Nordic Nutrition Recommenda-tions. He has more than 220 original publications listed in PubMed. Mi-kael spends his free time mostly in the forests with his mountain bike.
Abstract
In a joint research project between the University of Helsinki (public health nutrition) and Tampere University (biostatistics, marketing research), we have received consent to use a 2.3-y (Sept 2016 to Dec 2018) grocery purchase data from ca. 47,000 individual loyalty cards from all over Finland. This LoCard data consists of about 1.3 million transactions. About 38,000 card-holders have also answered to one of three questionnaires, with questions related to e.g. food consumption (food-frequency question-naire), socio-demographic background, nutrition literacy and food-selection motives. The sample is biased in terms of gender (more women than in the general population) and education (better educated), but with the use of the background questionnaire, we have been able to weigh the results to represent the Finnish population. In two studies, we have shown the LoCard data has acceptable validity to describe mild-alcohol consumption and dietary food selection. In submission-phase are also papers on, e.g., transition of meat-dominant food selection to more plant-based selection, CO2 emissions and price of different dietary patterns, and the effects of changed alcohol legislation on mild-alcohol product purchases. Moreover, we have worked with the data owner (S group) to build a personalized “dietary quality of food purchases” feedback system to the card owners.
Chair: Laurette Dubé (Scientific Director of MCCHE)
Co-Chair & Moderator: John G. Keogh (Managing Principal, Shantalla Inc. Toronto )
A panel discussion will follow.