Exploring the Relationship Between Obesity and the Prevalence of Food Deserts in Arkansas PDF Download

Author: Hillarie Whitehorn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Food supply
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Author: Katherine Dawn Morris
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political planning
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Defined as large geographic areas where residents have limited access to grocery stores and therefore to healthy food, food deserts are thought to contribute to poor diets, especially among people with low incomes and limited mobility. In 2009, the Economic Research Service (ERS) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) delivered a report to Congress that included the Food Desert Locator database, which provided a nationwide quantitative standard for categorizing a census tract as a food desert. In this study, I aggregate these data to the county level in order to conduct a cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between food desert intensity and obesity rates. I find that, while there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between these two variables, the magnitude of this relationship is too small to be impactful. These results suggest that the USDA's Food Desert Locator may have some promise as a nationwide measure, but they also suggest the need for additional testing and improvement in order to enhance its utility as a guide for policymaking.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309137284
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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In the United States, people living in low-income neighborhoods frequently do not have access to affordable healthy food venues, such as supermarkets. Instead, those living in "food deserts" must rely on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy food choices, such as fruits and vegetables. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened a two-day workshop on January 26-27, 2009, to provide input into a Congressionally-mandated food deserts study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. The workshop, summarized in this volume, provided a forum in which to discuss the public health effects of food deserts.

Author: Nama
Publisher: Tredition Gmbh
ISBN: 9783384223234
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Our children deserve a healthy start. Yet, millions live in "food deserts" - areas lacking access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. "Food Deserts: Feeding Obesity" explores the troubling link between these communities and rising childhood obesity rates. This book goes beyond just statistics. We'll delve into the challenges faced by families in food deserts: limited grocery options, reliance on fast food, and the impact on children's health. But this isn't just a story of problems; it's a call to action. Discover inspiring stories of communities creating solutions - community gardens, mobile markets, and innovative partnerships. "Food Deserts: Feeding Obesity" equips you with the knowledge to advocate for change. Together, we can create a future where all children have access to healthy food and a chance to thrive.

Author: Michele Ver Ploeg
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437921345
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 directed the U.S. Dept. of Agr. to conduct a 1-year study to assess the extent of areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, identify characteristics and causes of such areas, consider how limited access affects local populations, and outline recommend. to address the problem. This report presents the findings of the study, which include results from two conferences of national and internat. authorities on food deserts and a set of research studies. It also includes reviews of existing literature, a national-level assessment of access to large grocery stores and supermarkets, analysis of the economic and public health effects of limited access, and a discussion of existing policy interventions. Illus.

Author: Seth Edward Frndak
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Author: Michael R. Thomsen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Families in low-income neighborhoods sometimes lack access to supermarkets that provide a broad range of healthy foods. We investigate whether these so called “food deserts” play a role in childhood obesity using a statewide panel data set of Arkansas elementary schoolchildren. We use fixed-effects panel data regression models to estimate the average food desert effect. We next compare children who left (entered) food deserts to children who were always (never) in food deserts and homogenize samples for those whose food desert status changed as a result of a change in residence and those whose status changed only as a consequence of the entry or exit of a supermarket. We present evidence that exposure to food deserts is associated with higher z-scores for body mass index. On average, this is in the neighborhood of 0.04 standard deviations. The strongest evidence and largest association is among urban students and especially those that transition into food deserts from non-deserts. Our food desert estimates are similar in magnitude to findings reported in earlier work on diet and lifestyle interventions targeting similarly aged schoolchildren. That said, we are unable to conclude that the estimated food desert effect is causal because many of the transitions into or out of food deserts result from a change in residence, an event that is endogenous to the child's household. However, there is evidence that food deserts are a risk indicator and that food desert areas may be obesogenic in ways that other low-income neighborhoods are not.

Author: Zhongyi Wang
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781267551177
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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In this paper we utilized a panel data set from 2004 to 2010 to identify and determine the demographic and economic drivers of food deserts in both urban and rural areas in Arkansas. We defined food deserts as areas where access to healthy foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits are limited. More specifically, separate distance measures from the census block centroid to the nearest supermarket or grocery store were used to determine if the area is an urban food desert (1 mile) or rural food desert (10 miles). These distance measures were then aggregated at the census block group level. Locations of supermarkets and big grocery stores that provide fresh produce were geocoded (latitude and longitude) accordingly. Socio-demographic and economic variables at the census block group level were then matched with the distance information. These variables were from Census 2000 Summary File 3. Finally, we employed multivariate regression approaches to model the relationship between socio-demographic and economic factors and the existence of urban and rural food deserts in Arkansas. We found that block groups with deprived situation, such as less per capita income, higher unemployment, and less educational attainment, will be more likely to be food deserts.

Author: Daja C. Menefee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Over the past few decades, the prevalence of obesity and diet-related diseases has steadily increased and become a major public health concern. Part of the problem has been attributed to the large quantity of unhealthy (energy-dense) foods U.S. consumers include in their diets. Statistics on food environment suggest that some areas and households have easier access to fast food restaurants and convenience stores but limited access to supermarkets. Limited access to nutritious food and relatively easier access to less nutritious food have been shown to lead to poor diets and, ultimately, to obesity and diet-related diseases. These issues may more negatively affect some communities than others, particularly rural communities as they tend to be further away from food outlets compared to urban areas. Counties are classified as food deserts based upon the percentage of residents living below the federal poverty line and the percentage of residents residing more than one mile from a supermarket. This definition excludes many viable food outlet options, including smaller independently-owned groceries. With rural residents being at a greater disadvantage, it becomes important to consider smaller groceries as an alternative for these communities. The level of social capital may be an indicator of an area's willingness to support its community. The social environment of rural communities can be characterized as having a high degree of interconnectedness within the community, so that "everybody knows everybody else" (Beggs, Haines, & Hurlbert, 1996). This unique social network in rural communities facilitates the buildup of social capital, which incorporates reciprocity and the willingness to do things for members within the network. This study finds a negative relationship between obesity and social capital in nonmetropolitan counties, as well as a negative relationship between obesity rates and rural grocery stores. These conclusions lend insight into ways to decrease the level of obesity in rural areas.

Author: Paula Brigid Ford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The prevalence of obesity within the U.S. has risen dramatically in the past thirty years. Recent changes in food and physical activity environments may contribute to increased obesity prevalence, suggesting that disparities in these environments may be linked to the increased risk of obesity observed in low-income, and racial/ethnic minority women. This dissertation characterizes the local food environment experienced by low-income women who participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Kansas, evaluates whether characteristics of the local food environment contribute to obesity risk, and examines how these relationships vary across the urban-rural continuum. Chapter One reviews the relevant literature examining the association between obesity and local food environments, and identifies three testable hypotheses that serve as the framework for later chapters. Chapter Two characterizes the local food environment and examines geographic, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in the availability of small grocery stores and supermarkets. Chapter Three examines the association between store availability and obesity risk at an individual level among participants in the WIC Program, while Chapter Four utilizes multi-level modeling to examine the relationships between tract deprivation, tract store availability and body mass index (BMI). Significant geographic disparities were observed in the availability of small grocery and supermarkets. Racial and ethnic disparities observed within tracts were not observed when examining store availability in a 1-mile radius around the residence of WIC mothers. The majority of women participating in the WIC program resided within a 1-mile radius of a small grocery store, and micropolitan and metropolitan WIC mothers had a multiplicity of food stores available within a 3-mile radius of residence. Food store availability was associated with increased obesity risk only in micropolitan areas. The availability of food stores did not mediate the association between tract deprivation and BMI, which varied across the urban-rural continuum. Overall, these results suggest that the relationship between local food environments and eating behaviors is complex, that limited store availability does not contribute to increased obesity risk in vulnerable populations, and that the association between local food environments and obesity risk varies across the urban-rural continuum.