Abstract
BackgroundThe primary study objective was to examine whether the presence of food retailers surrounding schools was associated with students’ lunchtime eating behaviours. The secondary objective was to determine whether measures of the food retail environment around schools captured using road network or circular buffers were more strongly related to eating behaviours while at school.MethodsGrade 9 and 10 students (N=6,971) who participated in the 2009/10 Canadian Health Behaviour in School Aged Children Survey were included in this study. The outcome was determined by students’ self-reports of where they typically ate their lunch during school days. Circular and road network-based buffers were created for a 1 km distance surrounding 158 schools participating in the HBSC. The addresses of fast food restaurants, convenience stores and coffee/donut shops were mapped within the buffers. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine whether there was a relationship between the presence of food retailers near schools and students regularly eating their lunch at a fast food restaurant, snack-bar or café. The Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) value, a measure of goodness-of-fit, was used to determine the optimal buffer type.ResultsFor the 1 km circular buffers, students with 1–2 (OR= 1.10, 95% CI: 0.57-2.11), 3–4 (OR=1.45, 95% CI: 0.75-2.82) and ≥5 nearby food retailers (OR=2.94, 95% CI: 1.71-5.09) were more likely to eat lunch at a food retailer compared to students with no nearby food retailers. The relationships were slightly stronger when assessed via 1 km road network buffers, with a greater likelihood of eating at a food retailer for 1–2 (OR=1.20, 95% CI:0.74-1.95), 3–4 (OR=3.19, 95% CI: 1.66-6.13) and ≥5 nearby food retailers (OR=3.54, 95% CI: 2.08-6.02). Road network buffers appeared to provide a better measure of the food retail environment, as indicated by a lower AIC value (3332 vs. 3346).ConclusionsThere was a strong relationship between the presence of food retailers near schools and students’ lunchtime eating behaviours. Results from the goodness of fit analysis suggests that road network buffers provide a more optimal measure of school neighbourhood food environments relative to circular buffers.
Highlights
The primary study objective was to examine whether the presence of food retailers surrounding schools was associated with students’ lunchtime eating behaviours
Young people who frequently eat at fast food restaurants have poorer diets than those who eat at these restaurants less frequently [7,8,9]
There is a lack of analogous research on food purchases at convenience stores or coffee/donut shops, the increased consumption of sugar sweetened beverages [10] and snack foods [11] in recent years suggests that these food retailers may influence eating behaviours
Summary
The primary study objective was to examine whether the presence of food retailers surrounding schools was associated with students’ lunchtime eating behaviours. Poor eating behaviours, defined in this paper as eating behaviours that lead to an increased consumption of foods high in calories, sugar, salt and fat, are an important determinant of health among young people. A few studies have considered whether the presence of food retailers near schools negatively influences young peoples’ eating behaviours and diets. A major limitation of existing studies is that they measured the overall consumption of specific food items (e.g., fruits and vegetables), and did not consider where or when the food items were obtained This makes it impossible to distinguish between the contribution of the school food retail environment, the home environment, and other environments to overall consumption. It is important to note that young people spend a large portion of their day at school, there are other locations such as the home food environment where context-specific eating behaviours are important
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