UMass Worcester PRC Publications
Title
Disparities in access to healthy and unhealthy foods in central Massachusetts: implications for public health policy
UMMS Affiliation
UMass Worcester Prevention Research Center; Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
Publication Date
2015-03-09
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition | Health Policy | Human and Clinical Nutrition | Preventive Medicine | Public Health
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To analyze geographic and income disparities in access to healthy foods in central Massachusetts.
METHODS: We surveyed 106 (92% of all) food stores longitudinally in the study area between 2007 and 2010. We analyzed the geographic and temporal variations in community- and store-level healthy food availability indices (HFAI) and unhealthy food availability indices (UFAI) overall and by select store and community characteristics.
RESULTS: Twenty-seven of 68 communities in the study area (39.7%) had no food store and 5 (8.3%) had one or few stores with very limited availability of healthy foods, affecting 23.7% of the county population. Lack of food stores was associated strongly with lower housing density and upper tertile of median household income. About 45% of the surveyed stores had inadequate availabilities of healthy food. Store-level HFAI and UFAI scores were highly correlated, and higher among larger stores affiliated with a chain (vs independent). Though healthy foods were usually most available in larger stores, unhealthy foods were widely available in all stores.
CONCLUSIONS: Over half of central Massachusetts communities, mostly rural and small, had either no food store or few stores with limited availabilities of healthy foods. Immediate policy interventions on the food environment are necessary in these communities. Further, without examining what is actually sold in stores, analysis of disparities in access to healthy food relies on the number of food stores, which can lead to a distorted picture of accessibility and mislead community health policies.
DOI of Published Version
10.1080/07315724.2014.917058
Source
J Am Coll Nutr. 2015;34(2):150-8. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2014.917058. Epub 2015 Mar 9. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Journal of the American College of Nutrition
Related Resources
PubMed ID
25751264
Repository Citation
Olendzki BC, Procter-Gray E, Wedick NM, Patil V, Zheng H, Kane KJ, Land T, Li W. (2015). Disparities in access to healthy and unhealthy foods in central Massachusetts: implications for public health policy. UMass Worcester PRC Publications. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2014.917058. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/prc_pubs/51