Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769
Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Item Associations of Fast Food Restaurant Availability With Dietary Intake and Weight Among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study, 2000-2004.(2011) Hickson, Demarc; Diez Roux, Ana; Smith, Adam; Tucker, Katherine; Gore, Larry; Zhang, Lei; Wyatt, SharonObjectives. We examined the associations of fast food restaurant (FFR) availability with dietary intake and weight among African Americans in the southeastern United States. Methods. We investigated cross-sectional associations of FFR availability with dietary intake and body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference in 4740 African American Jackson Heart Study participants (55.2 612.6 years, 63.3% women). We estimated FFR availability using circular buffers with differing radii centered at each participant's geocoded residential location. Results. We observed no consistent associations between FFR availability and BMI or waist circumference. Greater FFR availability was associated with higher energy intake among men and women younger than 55 years, even after adjustment for individual socioeconomic status. For each standard deviation increase in 5-mile FFR availability, the energy intake increased by 138 kilocalories (confidence interval [CI]=70.53, 204.75) for men and 58 kilocalories (CI=8.55,105.97) for women. We observed similar associations for the 2-mile FFR availability, especially in men. FFR availability was also unexpectedly positively associated with total fiber intake. Conclusions. FFR availability may contribute to greater energy intake in younger African Americans who are also more likely to consume fast food. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print May 5, 2011: e1-e9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2010.300006).Item Neighborhood Characteristics Associated with the Location of Food Stores and Food Service Places(2002) Morland, Kimberly; Wing, Steve; Diez Roux, Ana; Poole, CharlesBackground: Although the relationship between diet and disease is well established, sustainable dietary changes that would affect risk for disease have been difficult to achieve. Whereas individual factors are traditional explanations for the inability of some people to change dietary habits, little research has investigated how the physical availability of healthy foods affects individuals’ diets. This study examines the distribution of food stores and food service places by neighborhood wealth and racial segregation. Methods: Names and addresses of places to buy food in Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Minnesota were obtained from respective departments of health and agriculture. Addresses were geocoded to census tracts. Median house values were used to estimate neighborhood wealth, while the proportion of black residents was used to measure neighborhood racial segregation. Results: Compared to the poorest neighborhoods, large numbers of supermarkets and gas stations with convenience stores are located in wealthier neighborhoods. There are 3 times fewer places to consume alcoholic beverages in the wealthiest compared to the poorest neighborhoods (prevalence ratio [PR]0.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]0.1– 0.6). Regarding neighborhood segregation, there are 4 times more supermarkets located in white neighborhoods compared to black neighborhoods (PR4.3, 95% CI1.5–12.5). Conclusions: Without access to supermarkets, which offer a wide variety of foods at lower prices, poor and minority communities may not have equal access to the variety of healthy food choices available to nonminority and wealthy communities.