By Elizabeth Chambers, WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Communications and Marketing
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, the saying goes, but how much do Americans eat apples?
A new interactive data tool has some answers. Researchers from Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine have developed a tool that enables industry groups, health organizations, and policymakers to gain insights from the nation’s largest and most authoritative survey about Americans’ diet, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
The researchers piloted the tool with apples, Washington’s top agricultural product and a billion-dollar industry in the U.S. that encompasses raw apples, apple desserts, apple juice, and more. With the online tool, users can explore how consumption rates of different apple products vary across demographic groups and over time through customizable graphs.
“Data visualization is a powerful tool for evidence-based decision making in public health and market research,” said Nutrition and Exercise Physiology Associate Professor Ofer Amram, co-creator of the tool and director of the College of Medicine’s Community Health and Spatial Epidemiology Lab (CHaSE). “The apple interactive gives users a small taste of the insights to be gained from this dataset.”
The interactive graphs reveal several trends at a glance. Raw apples are the most democratic of apple products, with similar consumption rates across all levels of income and education. This upsets the applecart of most produce trends, as most fresh fruits and vegetables tend to be consumed at higher rates by people with more income and education. Apples are a consumer favorite that are available year-round, everywhere from gourmet grocery stores to gas stations, which could explain their universal popularity, the researchers said.
Other apple products fall farther from the tree and show demographic differences. Apple juice is more popular among the young while apple desserts are a favorite with older adults, for instance. A timeseries graph shows that apple juice intake has declined over the past 20 years, potentially due to public health messaging urging people to prioritize the consumption of fruit over fruit juice.
As a nationally representative and longitudinal survey, NHANES is the apple of health researchers’ eye. The survey has been conducted by the Centers for Disease Control at regular intervals since the 1960s and collects data not only about the consumption of various foods but also about physical activity, sleep, and common health conditions among American adults and children.
“NHANES is an incredibly rich dataset that can be difficult for non-researchers to use,” said Pablo Monsivais, professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology and one of the researchers behind the tool. “Our aim is to make this data more accessible to the public for commercial and other use.”
The WSU researchers offer custom data analytics services to industry groups and others interested in national health and nutrition data. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Pablo Monsivais at p.monsivais@wsu.edu.
Media Contact:
Stephanie Engle
WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Communications and Marketing
509-368-6937
stephanie.engle@wsu.edu
