The Role of Local Food Availability in Explaining Obesity Rsik Among Young School-Aged Children
| dc.contributor.author | Lee, Helen | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-08-14T15:07:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-08-14T15:07:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2012 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In recent years, research and public policy attention has increasingly focused on understanding whether modifiable aspects of the local food environment – the types and composition of food outlets families have proximate access to – are drivers of and potential solutions to the problem of childhood obesity in the United States. Given that much of the earlier published research has documented greater concentrations of fast-food outlets alongside limited access to large grocery stores in neighborhoods with higher shares of racial/ethnic minority groups and residents living in poverty, differences in retail food contexts may indeed exacerbate notable child obesity disparities along socioeconomic and racial/ethnic lines. This paper examines whether the lack of access to more healthy food retailers and/or the greater availability of “unhealthy” food purveyors in residential neighborhoods explains children’s risk of excessive weight gain, and whether differential food availability explains obesity disparities. I do so by analyzing a national survey of U.S. children followed over elementary school (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort) who are linked to detailed, longitudinal food availability measures from a comprehensive business establishment database (the National Establishment Time Series). I find that children who live in residentially poor and minority neighborhoods are indeed more likely to have greater access to fast-food outlets and convenience stores. However, these neighborhoods also have greater access to other food establishments that have not been linked to increased obesity risk, including large-scale grocery stores. When examined in a multi-level modeling framework, differential exposure to food outlets does not independently explain weight gain over time in this sample of elementary school-aged children. Variation in residential food outlet availability also does not explain socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences. It may thus be important to reconsider whether food access is, in all settings, a salient factor in understanding obesity risk among young children. | |
| dc.description.uri | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612000810 | |
| dc.identifier | https://doi.org/10.13016/2xi9-ftvf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Lee, Helen (2012) The Role of Local Food Availability in Explaining Obesity Rsik Among Young School-Aged Children. Social Science and Medicine, 74 (8). pp. 1193-1310. | |
| dc.identifier.other | Eprint ID 3901 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/24413 | |
| dc.subject | Access To Healthy Foods | |
| dc.subject | Nutrition | |
| dc.subject | Prenatal & Pediatric Health | |
| dc.subject | Obesity | |
| dc.title | The Role of Local Food Availability in Explaining Obesity Rsik Among Young School-Aged Children | |
| dc.type | Article |