Racial Differences in Perceived Food Swamp and Food Desert Exposure and Disparities in Self-Reported Dietary Habits.

Abiodun Atoloye,Sean Lucan,Kim Gans,Qianxia Jiang,Kristen Cooksey Stowers

doi:10.3390/ijerph17197143

Abstract

Both food swamps and food deserts have been associated with racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in obesity rates. Little is known about how the distribution of food deserts and food swamps relate to disparities in self-reported dietary habits, and health status, particularly for historically marginalized groups. In a national U.S. sample of 4305 online survey participants (age 18+), multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to assess by race and ethnicity the likelihood of living in a food swamp or food desert area. Predicted probabilities of self-reported dietary habits, health status, and weight status were calculated using the fitted values from ordinal or multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for relevant covariates. Results showed that non-Hispanic, Black participants (N = 954) were most likely to report living in a food swamp. In the full and White subsamples (N = 2912), the perception of residing in a food swamp/desert was associated with less-healthful self-reported dietary habits overall. For non-Hispanic Blacks, regression results also showed that residents of perceived food swamp areas (OR = 0.66, p < 0.01, 95% CI (0.51, 0.86)) had a lower diet quality than those not lving in a food swamp/food desert area. Black communities in particular may be at risk for environment-linked diet-related health inequities. These findings suggest that an individual’s perceptions of food swamp and food desert exposure may be related to diet habits among adults.

Highlights

Poor diet is one of the top contributors to obesity and many chronic diseases in the United States [1].Dietary habits may help explain some socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in health [2,3,4].Though the overall diet quality of US adults has modestly improved compared to the past decades, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities persist [3,5]
Black and Hispanics are more likely to live in food deserts [13,56], we found that Black Americans were more likely to perceive living in a food desert than Asians
Consistent with previous studies using objective neighborhood environment measures [10,60], we found that residents of perceived food deserts and swamps had poorer diets relative to those not living in a food swamp/food desert areas in the full sample

Summary

Introduction

Poor diet is one of the top contributors to obesity and many chronic diseases in the United States [1].Dietary habits may help explain some socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in health [2,3,4].Though the overall diet quality of US adults has modestly improved compared to the past decades, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities persist [3,5]. Poor diet is one of the top contributors to obesity and many chronic diseases in the United States [1]. Dietary habits may help explain some socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in health [2,3,4]. Though the overall diet quality of US adults has modestly improved compared to the past decades, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities persist [3,5]. A national study found that non-Hispanic Blacks had worse diet quality measured by Healthy Eating Index (HEI) compared to non-Hispanic Whites [3]. Neighborhood food environments play an important role in individuals’ diet quality, weight status, and overall health [6]. “Food desert,” areas where there is little access to healthful food, have long

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion