Relationships between Vacant Homes and Food Swamps: A Longitudinal Study of an Urban Food Environment.

Jessica Jones-Smith,Keshia Pollack Porter,Rachel Thornton,Joel Gittelsohn,Yeeli Mui

doi:10.3390/ijerph14111426

Jessica Jones-Smith, Keshia Pollack Porter + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111426

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Abstract

Research indicates that living in neighborhoods with high concentrations of boarded-up vacant homes is associated with premature mortality due to cancer and diabetes, but the mechanism for this relationship is unclear. Boarded-up housing may indirectly impact residents’ health by affecting their food environment. We evaluated the association between changes in vacancy rates and changes in the density of unhealthy food outlets as a proportion of all food outlets, termed the food swamp index, in Baltimore, MD (USA) from 2001 to 2012, using neighborhood fixed-effects linear regression models. Over the study period, the average food swamp index increased from 93.5 to 95.3 percentage points across all neighborhoods. Among non-African American neighborhoods, increases in the vacancy rate were associated with statistically significant decreases in the food swamp index (b = −0.38; 90% CI, −0.64 to −0.12; p-value: 0.015), after accounting for changes in neighborhood SES, racial diversity, and population size. A positive association was found among low-SES neighborhoods (b = 0.15; 90% CI, 0.037 to 0.27; p-value: 0.031). Vacant homes may influence the composition of food outlets in urban neighborhoods. Future research should further elucidate the mechanisms by which more distal, contextual factors, such as boarded-up vacant homes, may affect food choices and diet-related health outcomes.

Highlights

Neighborhood environments and resources may be important for eating behaviors and obesity risk [1,2,3,4]
We investigated the following research questions: (1) What is the association between changes in vacancy rates and changes in the relative density of unhealthy food outlets as a proportion of all food outlets, which we termed the food swamp index? and (2) Does this association vary by neighborhood racial composition, socioeconomic status (SES), or population change? A more comprehensive understanding of the potential role of vacant homes in shaping the mix of outlets in the food environment may be useful as public health practitioners, city planners, and housing officials consider various options to create more health-promoting neighborhoods
In models stratified by whether a neighborhood was predominantly African American, we found no statistically significant relationship between changes in vacancy rates and changes in the food swamp index, among African American neighborhoods

Summary

Introduction

Neighborhood environments and resources may be important for eating behaviors and obesity risk [1,2,3,4]. Studies have examined differences in the distribution of food outlets by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and racial composition, reporting that low-SES and predominantly. African American neighborhoods tend to have fewer supermarkets, fruit and vegetable markets, and natural food stores, while having greater access to liquor stores and outlets that promote unhealthy eating, such as fast food restaurants and convenience stores, compared to high-SES and predominantly. White neighborhoods [5,6,7]. This disproportionate exposure to unhealthy versus healthy food outlets, Int. J. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 1426; doi:10.3390/ijerph14111426 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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