Characterizing Urban Immigrants’ Interactions with the Food Retail Environment

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Public Health Nutr
• Personal Author:
  Yi, Stella S. ; Russo, Rienna ; Liu, Bian ; Kum, Susan ; Rummo, Pasquale ; Li, Yan
• Description:
  Objective
  
  The food retail environment is an important determinant of food access and the ability to achieve a healthy diet. However, immigrant communities may procure their food in different ways than the mainstream population owing to preferences for specific cultural products, or limited English language proficiency. The objective of this analysis was to describe the grocery shopping patterns and behaviors of one of the largest immigrant groups in New York City, Chinese Americans – a group experiencing high poverty and cardio-metabolic disparities.
  
  Design
  
  Cross-sectional survey data.
  
  Setting
  
  Community-based sample.
  
  Participants
  
  Self-identified Chinese Americans in the New York metropolitan area (n=239).
  
  Results
  
  Three shopping patterns were identified: Type 1: shopped weekly at an ethnic grocery store – and nowhere else; Type 2: shopped weekly at a non-ethnic grocery store, with occasional shopping at an ethnic store; and Type 3: did not perform weekly shopping. Type 1 vs. Type 2 shoppers tended to have lower education levels (37.5% vs. 78.0% with college degree); to be on public insurance (57.6% vs. 22.8%); speak English less well (18.4 vs. 41.4%); be food insecure (47.2% vs. 24.2%; p<0.01 for all) and, to travel nearly two miles further to shop at their primary grocery store (β=−1.55; 95% CI −2.81, −0.30).
  
  Discussion
  
  There are distinct grocery shopping patterns amongst urban-dwelling Chinese Americans corresponding to demographic and sociocultural factors that may help inform health interventions in this understudied group. Similar patterns may exist among other immigrant groups, lending preliminary support for an alternative conceptualization of how immigrant communities interact with the food retail environment.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Cross-Sectional Studies Emigrants And Immigrants Food Food Supply Humans
• Keywords:
  Chinese American Food Retail Environment Grocery Shopping Grocery Stores Immigrant Communities
• Source:
  Public Health Nutr. 24(10):3009-3017
• Pubmed ID:
  32895069
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8565613
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 HL141427/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DP006643/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U54 MD000538/MD/NIMHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  New York City, NY
• Volume:
  24
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:eacee1f9d55c60d665ebb5232698878b5b56a5cbdfe9213a21df75a25c31d24a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/126312/cdc_126312_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 776.25 KB ]