Neighborhood fast food restaurants and fast food consumption: A national study

Andrea S Richardson,Penny Gordon-Larsen,Janne Boone-Heinonen,Barry M Popkin

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-543

Abstract

BackgroundRecent studies suggest that neighborhood fast food restaurant availability is related to greater obesity, yet few studies have investigated whether neighborhood fast food restaurant availability promotes fast food consumption. Our aim was to estimate the effect of neighborhood fast food availability on frequency of fast food consumption in a national sample of young adults, a population at high risk for obesity.MethodsWe used national data from U.S. young adults enrolled in wave III (2001-02; ages 18-28) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 13,150). Urbanicity-stratified multivariate negative binomial regression models were used to examine cross-sectional associations between neighborhood fast food availability and individual-level self-reported fast food consumption frequency, controlling for individual and neighborhood characteristics.ResultsIn adjusted analysis, fast food availability was not associated with weekly frequency of fast food consumption in non-urban or low- or high-density urban areas.ConclusionsPolicies aiming to reduce neighborhood availability as a means to reduce fast food consumption among young adults may be unsuccessful. Consideration of fast food outlets near school or workplace locations, factors specific to more or less urban settings, and the role of individual lifestyle attitudes and preferences are needed in future research.

Highlights

Recent studies suggest that neighborhood fast food restaurant availability is related to greater obesity, yet few studies have investigated whether neighborhood fast food restaurant availability promotes fast food consumption
Fast food availability was not associated with reported fast food consumption in non-urban, low density urban, or high density urban areas after controlling for individual and neighborhood characteristics (Table 3)
In contrast with our hypothesis, we found that neighborhood fast food availability was not related to fast food consumption in our large, national sample of young adults residing in neighborhoods throughout the U.S Our findings suggest that targeting neighborhood fast food availability may not reduce consumption or obesity among young U.S adults

Summary

Introduction

Recent studies suggest that neighborhood fast food restaurant availability is related to greater obesity, yet few studies have investigated whether neighborhood fast food restaurant availability promotes fast food consumption. Our aim was to estimate the effect of neighborhood fast food availability on frequency of fast food consumption in a national sample of young adults, a population at high risk for obesity. Neighborhood availability of fast food restaurants has recently received considerable attention as a target to prevent obesity [1,2,3,4,5,6]. It is intuitive that fast food restaurants contribute to obesity by promoting fast food consumption. Findings from an even smaller literature that investigates direct relationships with fast food consumption are mixed [10,11,12]. Most evidence focuses on urban populations, with little research in suburban or rural populations. One of the difficulties is that urbanicity is often classified

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