 Food deserts or food swamps?: A mixed-methods study of local food environments in a Mexican citySusan Bridle-Fitzpatrick Social Science & Medicine, 2015, vol. 142, issue C, 202-213 Abstract: Differential access to healthy foods has been hypothesized to contribute to disparities in eating behaviors and health outcomes. While food deserts have been researched extensively in developed Anglophone countries, evidence from low- and middle-income countries is still scarce. In Mexico, prevalence of obesity is among the highest worldwide. As obesity has increased nationally and become a widespread public health issue, it is becoming concentrated in the low-income population. This mixed-methods study uses a multidimensional approach to analyze food environments in a low-, middle-, and high-income community in a Mexican city. The study advances understanding of the role that food environments may play in shaping eating patterns by analyzing the density and proximity of food outlet types as well as the variety, quantity, quality, pricing, and promotion of different foods. These measures are combined with in-depth qualitative research with families in the communities, including photo elicitation, to assess perceptions of food access. The central aims of the research were to evaluate physical and economic access and exposure to healthy and unhealthy foods in communities of differing socioeconomic status as well as participants' subjective perceptions of such access and exposure. The findings suggest a need to reach beyond a narrow focus on food store types and the distance from residence to grocery stores when analyzing food access. Results show that excessive access and exposure to unhealthy foods and drinks, or “food swamps,” may be a greater concern than food deserts for obesity-prevention policy in Mexico. Keywords: Mexico; Nutrition transition; Obesity; Neighborhood food environments; Socioeconomic status (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:142:y:2015:i:c:p:202-213 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.010 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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