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What's really in your neighborhood? Comparison of actual and perceived supermarket availability in primary household food shoppers in South Carolina
Author(s) -
Barnes Timothy L.,
Freedman Darcy A.,
Colabianchi Natalie,
Bell Bethany A.,
Nichols Michele D.,
Liese Angela D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.769.28
The availability of a supermarket (SUP) in a person's neighborhood has been linked with improved diet. This has been accomplished using actual food store locations in a person's neighborhood to characterize the food environment. A 1 mile radius, centered around a person's home has typically defined neighborhood. However, little is known about how individuals relate to this boundary and what they actually perceive to be in their neighborhood. We conducted a telephone survey of 817 primary household food shoppers on SUP availability, randomly selected from listed numbers within 64 contiguous ZIP codes. Actual SUP locations within the survey area were used to objectively characterize each individual's neighborhood food environment (1 mile radius). Overall, we found that 28.8% of individuals reported the presence of a SUP in their neighborhood while only 11.1% actually had a SUP present (p‐value < 0.0001). In stratified analysis, 60.5% of urban and 24.8% of non‐urban residences reported the presence of a SUP compared to 21.2% and 7.9% that actually had a SUP in their neighborhood (p‐values <0.0001). In conclusion, individuals' perception of SUP availability in their neighborhood was much greater than the actual SUP availability. This may suggest individuals perceive their neighborhood and food environment differently from the boundaries often studied by researchers. Funded by NCI R21CA132133 & R21CA132133‐02S1.