knowledge of complex carbohydrate foods. An increase in consumers' general nutrition knowledge with the passage of time or sampling differences in the pretest and pottest shopper samples at site I could bias the results in favor of demonstrating knowledge gain. Also, at both sites, those customers who recalled noticing the edu­cational materials could be those who pos­sessed prior interest in and more knowl­edge of nutrition. Differences in store en­vironments with respect to the amount of consumer information and general visual stimulation as well as the differing evalua­tion designs could account for the dif­ferences in the nutrition knowledge results between the two sites.

With respect to food use, the average food use score for the site I group declined somewhat after the intervention, but this decline appeared due mainly to a decrease in use of complex carbohydrate foods among those who did not recall exposure to our program. Also, at site II, the mean food use scores for complex carbohy­drates tended to be higher among those who recalled the program than among those who did not notice the materials.

In general, positive changes in food use appeared to be short term. We found in­creases in the sales of some target foods during the two-week period while the item was featured in the intervention materials. These increased sales usually did not ex­tend through the follow-up period, a re­sult that was expected because these target foods are staples purchased infrequently by shoppers. The increased use was not apparent in the long-term measure of food use, the 14-day home food-use diary data collected by the market research firm. This estimation of the impact of the program on food-item use is complicated,

Persons with ulcers and other stomach disorders often exclude caffeine­containing beverages and increase milk consumption, from medical advice or per­sonal decision, because of the presumed effects of these beverages on gastric acid secretion. However, the medical research literature fails to provide evidence that bland diets improve ulcer symptoms. In a recent example, K. McArthur, D. Hogan, and J. I. Isenberg (Gastroenterology 83:199-203, 1982) measured gastric acid secretion under standardized conditions in

VOLUME 14 NUMBER 4 1982

however, by seasonal changes. Since in some instances sales data from the site II store during 1980 yield different seasonal change figures for use of certain complex carbohydrate foods than do the data from the 1965-66 Household Food Consump­tion Survey, we have no standard for comparison.

This nutrition education program, eval­uated in the practical setting, offers some evidence that combining mass media and point-of-purchase approaches yields small gains in nutrition knowledge of con­sumers and that exposure to the educa­tional materials is associated with at least short-term increases in the use of some target foods. We found that estimation of the true impact of the program on nutri­tion knowledge is complicated by dif­ferences in the audience awareness of the program materials and by the difficulty in controlling for possibly biasing predispo­sition factors among the respondents. Food use assessment is even more com­plicated because of seasonal variations and apparent differences between short­term and more long-term measurements.

Beyond determining the impact of this program on consumers' knowledge and practices, we learned a great deal about evaluating nutrition education programs conducted at the point of food purchas­ing. First, evaluation studies must measure the audience's exposure to the educational message. Also, one must for­mulate specific objectives that specify the target audience. Finally, in regard to the evaluation, it seems quite important to have long-term and short-term measure­ments of the impact of programs as well as to try to measure in a variety of ways the accomplishments toward a particular ob­jective. 0

CAFFEINE

six healthy adult subjects after consump­tion of several beverages. Milk, beer, cof­fee and decaffeinated coffee, and caffeine­containing and caffeine-free carbonated beverages, when compared with water, all stimulated gastric acid secretion significantly. Milk stimulated the highest gastric acid secretion, coffee was in­termediate, and caffeine-containing soft drinks and decaffeinated coffee stimulated acid secretion least of the beverages tested. The investigators found no correlations with any particular component of the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project would not have been possible without the interest, cooperation, and assis­tance of Mary Ellen Burris and Sue Ann Rit­chko and their staffs from Wegmans Food Markets and Price Chopper Supermarkets and the store managers, interviewers, and other employees of the participating stores.

We also appreciate and acknowledge the assistance of Jim Griffith, George Lavris, Gor­don Webb, Ralph Payne, and their staffs in Cornell Media Services; Barbara Meffert, Cor­nell Cooperative Extension Regional Media Specialist; Gail Bromley, Ann McDonough, Mary Jane Rice, Joann Tarbox, and Karen Walsh, Cooperative Extension agents in the pilot sites; and David Glaser and the A.c. Nielsen Company for collection and tabulation of the home use and food purchase data. Final­ly, we wish to extend a special thank you to Daniel Solomon and Linda Buttel of Cornell University who generously assisted us with the statistical analyses of the data

NOTE

1 Giant Food. Consumer Affairs. Eaters' almanac (A review). Journal of Nutrition Education 12:35, 1980.

LITERATURE CITED

1 Fjeld, C. R., and R. Sommer. Ideas for point-of-purchase nutrition education. Jour­nal of Nutrition Education 13:135-36, 1981.

2 McGuire, W. J. Some internal psychological factors influencing consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research 2:302-19, 1976.

3 Campbell, D. T., and J. C. Stanley. Ex­perimental and quasi-experimental design for research. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing Co., 1963, pp. 25-26, 53.

4U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service. Consumer Food Economics Division. Food consump­tion of households in the Northeast, seasons, and year 1965-66: Household Food Con­sumption Survey 1965-66. Report No. 13. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agri­culture, 1972, pp. 65-67, 77-80.

beverages that would explain their relative effects on gastric acid secretion. Ulcer pa­tients might react differently than did the healthy subjects, and caffeine may be counterindicated for reasons other than effects on gastric acid secretion. However, based on these results, the authors ques­tion the rationale for restricting caffeine­containing beverages while permitting on a bland diet more potent stimulators of gastric acid secretion.

S.M.O.

JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION 145