TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationships between vacant homes and food swamps
T2 - A longitudinal study of an urban food environment
AU - Mui, Yeeli
AU - Jones-Smith, Jessica C.
AU - Thornton, Rachel L.J.
AU - Porter, Keshia Pollack
AU - Gittelsohn, Joel
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under award number 1R21HL102812-01A1; the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under award number U01HD086861; the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (OD) under award number U54HD070725. We would also like to thank C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown for their support through their Brown Community Healthy Scholarship Program; Jamie Harding mand Amanda Behrens Buczynski at the Center for a Livable Future for their geocoding and mapping expertise.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under award number 1R21HL102812-01A1; the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under award number U01HD086861; the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (OD) under award number U54HD070725. We would also like to thank C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown for their support through their Brown Community Healthy Scholarship Program; Jamie Harding and Amanda Behrens Buczynski at the Center for a Livable Future for their geocoding and mapping expertise.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/11/21
Y1 - 2017/11/21
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - African American
KW - Food environment
KW - Food store
KW - Food swamp
KW - Low-SES
KW - Neighborhood
KW - Vacant home
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph14111426
DO - 10.3390/ijerph14111426
M3 - Article
C2 - 29160811
AN - SCOPUS:85035043593
VL - 14
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1661-7827
IS - 11
M1 - 1426
ER -