Place Effects and Chronic Disease Rates in a Rural State: Evidence from a Triangulation of Methods

Mohamed Shabani Kariburyo, Lauri Andress, Alan Collins and Paul Kinder
Additional contact information
Mohamed Shabani Kariburyo: Division of Resource Economics and Management West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6108, USA
Lauri Andress: Health Policy, Management, and Leadership, School of Public Health West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-9190, USA
Alan Collins: Division of Resource Economics and Management West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6108, USA
Paul Kinder: Division of Resource Economics and Management West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6108, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: High rates of chronic diseases and increasing nutritional polarization between different income groups in the United States are issues of concern to policymakers and public health officials. Spatial differences in access to food are mainly blamed as the cause for these nutritional inequalities. This study first detected hot and cold spots of food providers in West Virginia and then used those places in a quasi-experimental method (entropy balancing) to study the effects of those places on diabetes and obesity rates. We found that although hot spots have lower rates of chronic diseases than non-hot spots and cold spots have higher rates of chronic diseases than non-cold spots—the situation is complicated. With the findings of income induced chronic disease rates in urban areas, where most hot spots are located, there is evidence of another case for "food swamps." However, in cold spots which are located mainly in rural areas, higher rates of chronic diseases are attributed to a combination of access to food providers along with lacking the means (i.e., income for low-income households) to form healthier habits.

Keywords: food environment; food insecurity; chronic diseases; rural food access; spatial analysis; matching methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6676/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6676/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6676-:d:413125

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().