Abstract
BackgroundThe association between the residential fast food environment and diet has gained growing attention. However, why the food environment affects food consumption is under-examined. This study aimed to investigate neighbourhood social norms with respect to fast food consumption as a potential mediating pathway between residential fast food outlet exposure and residents’ fast food consumption.MethodsA correlational study was conducted in which a nationwide sample of 1038 respondents living across The Netherlands completed a survey. Respondents reported their fast food consumption (amount/week) as well as perceived descriptive and injunctive norms regarding fast food consumption in their neighbourhood. Fast food outlet exposure was measured by the average count of fast food outlets within a 400 m walking distance buffer around the zip-codes of the respondents, using a retail outlet database. Regression models were used to assess associations between residential fast food outlet exposure, fast food consumption, and social norm perceptions, and a bootstrapping procedure was used to test the indirect -mediation- effect. Separate analyses were performed for descriptive norms and injunctive norms.ResultsThere was no overall or direct association between residential fast food outlet exposure and residents’ fast food consumption. However, fast food outlet exposure was positively associated with neighbourhood social norms (descriptive and injunctive) regarding fast food consumption, which in turn were positively associated with the odds of consuming fast food. Moreover, results of the bootstrapped analysis provided evidence of indirect effects of fast food outlet exposure on fast food consumption, via descriptive norms and injunctive norms.ConclusionsIn neighbourhoods with more fast food outlets, residents were more likely to perceive fast food consumption in the neighbourhood as more common and appropriate. In turn, stronger neighbourhood social norms were associated with higher fast food consumption. Acknowledging the correlational design, this study is the first that implies that neighbourhood social norms may be a mediating pathway in the relation between the residential fast food environment and fast food consumption. Future research may examine the role of neighbourhood social norms in other contexts and explore how the changing food environment may shift our consumption norms.
Highlights
The association between the residential fast food environment and diet has gained growing attention
Controlling for fast food outlet exposure, perceived descriptive norms were significantly positively associated with the odds of fast food consumption (p = .03, b path)
Controlling for the mediator descriptive norms, fast food outlet exposure remained non-associated with fast food consumption (p = .36, c’ path)
Summary
The association between the residential fast food environment and diet has gained growing attention. There are indications that these influences are linked; that the physical food environment may contribute to social norms regarding appropriate eating [23, 29], thereby affecting food choices [19, 20, 30, 31]. Building on social practice theory [32, 33], a qualitative study of fast food neighbourhood perceptions revealed that fast food outlets became normalised for those living near them [29]. It has not quantitatively been studied whether the neighbourhood-level food environment is associated with social norms, that may in turn be associated with food consumption. We refer to these social norms as ‘neighbourhood social norms’, i.e. perceptions about what other people in the neighbourhood consume and what is normal or appropriate consumption in the neighbourhood
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