Details:

Alternative Title:
Nutr J
Publisher's site:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-10-6
Personal Author:
Dunn, Richard A ; Sharkey, Joseph R ; Lotade-Manje, Justus ; Bouhlal, Yasser ; Nayga, Rodolfo M ;
Dunn, Richard A ; Sharkey, Joseph R ; Lotade-Manje, Justus ; Bouhlal, Yasser ; Nayga, Rodolfo M ; Less -
Description:
Background Little 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. Methods Ground-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. Results The 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. Conclusion This 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.
Subject:
[+]
African Americans
Food Supply
Fruit
Hispanic Americans
Humans
Income
Linear Models
Multivariate Analysis
Research
Residence Characteristics
Rural Population
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors
Vegetables

Source:
Nutr J. 2011; 10:6.
Pubmed ID:
21244688
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC3033798
Document Type:
Journal Article ;
Funding:
1U48DP001924/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States ; 5P20MD002295/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ;
1U48DP001924/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States ; 5P20MD002295/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; Less -
Place as Subject:
Texas ;
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:1c19522654f8d16876138d3b0defc7a86794672f6d1f5ffccb9c11e8cbe82816
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	1475-2891-10-6.nxml	txt
  	license.txt	txt

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