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Disparities in Healthy Food Access: Are We Improving?
Author(s) -
DeWeese Robin,
OhriVachaspati Punam
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.45.7
Subject(s) - census , ethnic group , health equity , geography , environmental health , medicine , descriptive statistics , demography , census tract , race (biology) , healthy food , public health , population , food science , political science , statistics , botany , chemistry , nursing , mathematics , sociology , law , biology
Evidence suggests that residents with greater access to supermarkets may consume more fruits and vegetables, whereas greater convenience store availability is associated with less nutritious food intake. In cross‐sectional national and regional data, lower supermarket availability and higher convenience store availability has been observed in low‐income, high‐minority neighborhoods compared to higher income and white neighborhoods. The objective of this study is to longitudinally examine food store availability by census tract characteristics. Methods Lists of retail food outlets within a one‐mile radius of four New Jersey cities were obtained from commercial databases for 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Using a standardized protocol, outlets were classified as supermarkets, small grocery stores, convenience stores, meat markets, and vegetables markets. Census tracts were categorized by income, race/ethnicity, and education levels. Descriptive statistics examined trends in prevalence of store types by neighborhood characteristics. Results Communities with a majority of non‐Hispanic black residents had fewer supermarkets compared to communities with no majority race across all four years. The difference was significant in 2012 (0.10±0.31 vs 0.30±0.56, p=.014) and 2013 (0.12±0.35 vs 0.28±0.55, p=0.046). In contrast, majority non‐Hispanic white communities had significantly fewer convenience stores (range: 0.92–1.12) compared to majority Hispanic (range: 3.38–4.19) and non‐Hispanic black (range: 2.54–3.38) communities in all four years. Conclusions Disparities in access to healthy foods remain, and may contribute to the health disparities observed among minorities. Interventions that increase the amount of healthy foods in corner stores could ensure minority neighborhoods have access to nutritious foods, even in the absence of supermarkets. Support or Funding Information Funding was provided by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R01HD071583‐01A1)