Abstract 10285: The Association of Food Deserts with Sudden Death in Wake County, North Carolina

Abstract

Introduction: Food deserts (FD) are low-income areas with limited access to healthy foods associated with an individual’s risk of diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. These factors likely contribute to the risk of sudden death, but their association with sudden death is unknown. In this study, we aim to determine the impact of living in a food desert on sudden death. Hypothesis: Sudden death will occur more often in FD census tracts than in non-FD low-income tracts and high-income tracts. Methods: Census tract designations of income and FD status were determined from the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Access Research Atlas. The incidence of sudden death in each census tract was determined using a registry of 399 adjudicated out-of-hospital sudden deaths ages 18-64 in Wake County, North Carolina reported by emergency medical services from 2013-2015. A Poisson regression model was fit with FD status as a covariate and adjusted for the population size, percentage of males, and percentage of African Americans in the census tract. A Wald statistic was used to calculate sudden death incidence ratios (IR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the populations living in FD tracts and in non-FD low-income tracts, compared with the population residing in high-income tracts (non-low-income and non-FD) as the reference group. Results: After adjusting for population size, sex, and race, the incidence of sudden death in FDs was higher than high-income census tracts (IR=1.466, 95% CI: 1.021-2.105). The incidence in non-FD low-income census tracts was also higher than high-income tracts (IR=1.398, 95% CI: 0.993-1.968). However, the FD census tracts had similar incidence to the non-FD low-income tracts (IR=0.954, 95% CI: 0.665-1.367). Conclusion: Living a food desert in Wake County, NC is associated with sudden death. Public health initiatives addressing healthy food access and income inequality may reduce the incidence of sudden death. However, a larger study, with a greater geographic distribution, is in development to explore the independent association of poverty and availability of healthy foods.