Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years supermarkets and fast food restaurants have been replacing those “wet markets” of independent vendors as the major food sources in urban China. Yet how these food outlets relate to children’s nutritional intake remains largely unexplored.MethodUsing a longitudinal survey of households and communities in China, this study examines the effect of the urban built food environment (density of wet markets, density of supermarkets, and density of fast food restaurants) on children’s nutritional intake (daily caloric intake, daily carbohydrate intake, daily protein intake, and daily fat intake). Children aged 6–18 (n = 185) living in cities were followed from 2004 to 2006, and difference-in-difference models are used to address the potential issue of omitted variable bias.ResultsResults suggest that the density of wet markets, rather than that of supermarkets, positively predicts children’s four dimensions of nutritional intake. In the caloric intake model and the fat intake model, the positive effect of neighborhood wet market density on children’s nutritional intake is stronger with children from households of lower income.ConclusionWith their cheaper prices and/or fresher food supply, wet markets are likely to contribute a substantial amount of nutritional intake for children living nearby, especially those in households with lower socioeconomic status. For health officials and urban planners, this study signals a sign of warning as wet markets are disappearing from urban China’s food environment.
Highlights
In recent years supermarkets and fast food restaurants have been replacing those “wet markets” of independent vendors as the major food sources in urban China
Results suggest that the density of wet markets, rather than that of supermarkets, positively predicts children’s four dimensions of nutritional intake
In the caloric intake model and the fat intake model, the positive effect of neighborhood wet market density on children’s nutritional intake is stronger with children from households of lower income. With their cheaper prices and/or fresher food supply, wet markets are likely to contribute a substantial amount of nutritional intake for children living nearby, especially those in households with lower socioeconomic status
Summary
In recent years supermarkets and fast food restaurants have been replacing those “wet markets” of independent vendors as the major food sources in urban China. How these food outlets relate to children’s nutritional intake remains largely unexplored. The relationship between the food environment and health behaviors and/or outcomes (mainly fast food consumption, overweight, etc.) has been documented in recent literature [14,15,16,17,18]. For a better understanding of what the above changes in food environment could mean for a developing country, more empirical evidence is needed for at least two reasons. The spatial and socioeconomic structure of Chinese cities has been dramatically changed with on average more than 10 million new urban dwellers added annually during the past two decades
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