Abstract

BackgroundLittle is known about how affordability of healthy food varies with community characteristics in rural settings. We examined how the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables varies with the economic and demographic characteristics in six rural counties of Texas.MethodsGround-truthed data from the Brazos Valley Food Environment Project were used to identify all food stores in the rural region and the availability and lowest price of fresh whole fruit and vegetables in the food stores. Socioeconomic characteristics were extracted from the 2000 U.S. Census Summary Files 3 at the level of the census block group. We used an imputation strategy to calculate two types of price indices for both fresh fruit and fresh vegetables: a high variety and a basic index; and evaluated the relationship between neighborhood economic and demographic characteristics and affordability of fresh produce, using linear regression models.ResultsThe mean cost of meeting the USDA recommendation of fruit consumption from a high variety basket of fruit types in our sample of stores was just over $27.50 per week. Relying on the three most common fruits lowered the weekly expense to under $17.25 per week, a reduction of 37.6%. The effect of moving from a high variety to a low variety basket was much less when considering vegetable consumption: a 4.3% decline from $29.23 to $27.97 per week. Univariate regression analysis revealed that the cost of fresh produce is not associated with the racial/ethnic composition of the local community. However, multivariate regression showed that holding median income constant, stores in neighborhoods with higher percentages of Black residents paid more for fresh fruits and vegetables. The proportion of Hispanic residents was not associated with cost in either the univariate or multivariate analysis.ConclusionThis study extends prior work by examining the affordability of fresh fruit and vegetables from food stores in a large rural area; and how access to an affordable supply of fresh fruit and vegetables differs by neighborhood inequalities. The approach and findings of this study are relevant and have important research and policy implications for understanding access and availability of affordable, healthy foods.

Highlights

  • There are well-documented disparities in both dietary intake and diet-related health conditions among racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the United States [1]

  • The aim of this article is to investigate whether stores located in rural neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status or with higher proportions of AfricanAmerican and Hispanic residents charge more for fresh fruit and vegetables

  • We focus on fresh fruit items since they account for roughly 81% of total non-juice fruit consumption

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Summary

Introduction

There are well-documented disparities in both dietary intake and diet-related health conditions among racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the United States [1]. Physical environment has been associated with numerous health behaviors and outcomes [3,4], leading many to Attempts to study the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and the affordability of healthy food options, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, have utilized data from predominantly urban areas [11,12,21,23,24,25,26,27]. The aim of this article is to investigate whether stores located in rural neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status or with higher proportions of AfricanAmerican and Hispanic residents charge more for fresh fruit and vegetables. Previous findings on the relationship between the affordability of healthy food options and neighborhood economic status using in urban settings are mixed.

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