Household Food Shopping Locations Beyond Residential Neighborhoods: An Exploratory Study Using a GPS-Based Household Survey

Abstract

Understanding household food shopping locations is important as it could help policymakers develop effective place-based strategies to improve healthy eating and subsequently improve health conditions. Although a growing number of studies have examined food shopping patterns and their associations with food environment around home locations, evidence on food shopping locations relative to areas beyond residential neighborhoods remains scarce. We aimed to explore spatial dimensions of household food shopping locations relative to home, workplaces, and commuting routes. We defined three buffers to delineate potential food shopping geographies for home, workplaces, and commuting routes. We calculated home–grocery distances and work–grocery distances, and the percentage of grocery shopping locations falling inside each of the three aforementioned spatial units, respectively. Our findings suggest that people were more likely to visit food stores beyond immediate residential areas or workplace areas. They often bypassed the closest supermarkets near home or work, whereas they were more likely to shop along their commuting paths. Our findings provide an example of the uncertain geographic context problem in a context of food activities, highlighting that activity space is a more comprehensive measure for assessing food exposures and food shopping activities. Key Words: activity spaces, food shopping locations, healthy food environment, residential neighborhoods, workplace neighborhoods.