We’re excited to share our latest work, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, where we discuss how supermarket loyalty card data can be leveraged for population health research and surveillance.
In this paper, we explore how everyday shopping data—originally collected for marketing—can be repurposed to:
- Track dietary habits, alcohol and tobacco purchases, and over-the-counter medication use
- Spot emerging nutritional risks linked to demographic and cultural changes
- Monitor seasonal illnesses and support early disease forecasting
- Evaluate public health policies, such as sugar or alcohol taxes, and other interventions
We also discuss the methodological challenges involved in working with this type of data and propose a roadmap for responsibly and effectively using it to support public health research.