Fast Food Restaurants and Food Stores

Abstract

Background A growing body of cross-sectional, small-sample research has led to policy strategies to reduce food deserts – neighborhoods with little or no access to healthy foods – by limiting fast food restaurants and small food stores and increasing access to supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods. Methods We used 15 years of longitudinal data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, a cohort of U.S. young adults (n=5,115, 18–30 years at baseline), with linked time-varying geographic information system-derived food resource measures. Using repeated measures from four examination periods (n=15,854 person-exam observations) and conditional regression (conditioned on the individual), we modeled fast food consumption, diet quality, and meeting fruit and vegetable recommendations as a function of fast food chain, supermarket, or grocery store availability (counts per population) within 1 kilometer (km), 1–2.9km, 3–4.9km, and 5–8km of respondents’ homes. Models were sex-stratified, controlled for individual sociodemographics and neighborhood poverty, and tested for interaction by individual-level income. Results Fast food consumption was related to fast food availability in low-income respondents, particularly within 1–2.9km of homes among men [coefficient (95% CI) up to: 0.34 (0.16, 0.51)]. Greater supermarket availability was generally unrelated to diet quality and fruit and vegetable intake and relationships between grocery store availability and diet outcomes were mixed. Conclusions Our findings provide some evidence for zoning restrictions on fast food restaurants within 3km of low-income residents, but suggest that increased access to food stores may require complementary or alternative strategies to promote dietary behavior change.

Neighborhood socioeconomic status and food environment: A 20-year longitudinal latent class analysis among CARDIA participants

“…Fast food restaurants, non-fast food restaurants, supermarket, and convenience stores were aggregated as counts within 3 kilometers (km) of each respondent’s residential location (Euclidean buffer). The 3 km buffer was chosen to capture distances readily accessible by walking and driving to neighborhood diet-related resources as supported by several studies (Boone-Heinonen, Gordon-Larsen et al 2011; Hillier, Cannuscio et al 2011; Author et al 2011). Food resource densities were derived as counts per 10 km secondary roadway (roads used to connect smaller towns, subdivisions, and neighborhoods) and local roadway (roads used for local traffic, usually with a single lane of traffic in each direction), resulting in a measure of concentration of food resources along streets representing overall commercial activity(Romley, Cohen et al 2007; Richardson, Boone-Heinonen et al 2011).…”

Weighing the Evidence of Common Beliefs in Obesity Research

“…An and Sturm 231 used data on children and adolescents from California and found no relationship between consuming a healthy diet and the food environment as measured by type of food outlets within 1.5 miles of the respondent's home or school. Using 15 years of longitudinal data from CARDIA Boone-Heinonen et al found that supermarket availability near the home is unrelated to diet quality or produce intake 232 .…”

The association of binge eating and neighbourhood fast-food restaurant availability on diet and weight status

“…Frequent fast-food consumption has been related to higher fat intake (12,18–20) and poor health (21–24) . Availability of FFR in one’s residential neighbourhood increases the likelihood of consuming fast foods (23,25,26) , having poor diet quality (12,27) and being obese (23,24,28–30) . However, not all individuals within a given environment will have a poor diet or become obese; some studies did not find an association between residential neighbourhood availability of FFR and diet (31–33) or obesity (32) , while some found the inverse to be true (greater neighbourhood FFR availability associated with lower BMI) (34) .…”