Food Environment Perceptions Survey (FEPS)
Overview of the Food Environment Perceptions Survey (FEPS). The personal food environment survey tool is designed to assess people’s perceptions of the accessibility, affordability, availability, convenience, and quality of food in the spaces they access food. The survey includes optional sections related to perceptions of food sustainability in addition to the core set of questions. The survey was developed by: 1) reviewing and compiling existing survey instruments that included survey items related to people’s perceptions of their food environment; 2) conducting two rounds of a Delphi survey with food environment experts to help prioritize questions to include in the survey; 3) conducting workshops with key food environment experts in India and Cambodia; 4) cognitive testing; and 5) subsequent pilot testing of the survey with rural, peri-urban and urban populations in India and Cambodia.
Food Environment Perceptions Survey Cover Page
Food Environment Perceptions Survey
Food Environment Perceptions Survey Instructions
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To assess people’s perceptions of their food environments (i.e., the personal food environment).
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This tool is useful if you want to collect information about the different types of food environments that individuals’ access and the dimensions of the food environment that influence their food acquisition and purchasing decisions. The survey, or sections of it, can be integrated into household or dietary surveys.
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The sampling approach for using this tool will be dependent on the study goals and resources. It is designed to be included as part of a household survey but could be implemented using many different sampling frames and approaches.
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The personal food environment survey tool assesses the personal as well as the wild, cultivated, and built food environments.
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The personal food environment survey tool assesses food availability, accessibility, affordability, quality, promotion, convenience, and sustainability.
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The survey tool is designed to be administered to study participants by an enumerator.
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- Interviewer administered survey
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The data obtained from the survey can be analyzed using descriptive statistics to describe the food environment types that are accessed and which food groups they source from these food environments. Future work will involve developing scoring protocols for the survey.
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A key strength of this tool is the breadth of information it collects across a variety of food groups and food environment dimensions.
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The relatively long length of the survey (~45-60 min) and the lack of validation beyond face validity are the main weaknesses of this survey.