Unraveling the Role of Objective Food Environment in Chinese Elderly’s Diet-Related Diseases Epidemic: Considering Both Healthy Food Accessibility and Diversity

Zhaohua Zhang (), Yuxi Luo (), Zhao Zhang, Derrick Robinson and Xin Wang
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Zhaohua Zhang: School of Economics, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin 300134, China
Yuxi Luo: School of Economics and Management, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
Zhao Zhang: College of Information and Electrical Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Derrick Robinson: Aquaculture Economist, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, San Diego, CA 92037, USA
Xin Wang: School of Economics, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin 300134, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-16

Abstract: The essential role of the objective food environment in achieving healthy aging has been widely recognized worldwide. However, the existing empirical evidence is mostly based on Western cases, and how the objective food environment associates with health outcomes among Chinese elderly remains poorly understood. By merging nationally representative micro survey data with Baidu-based spatial data on the location of food outlets, this study develops accessibility and diversity indicators to explore the relationship between food environment and diet-related diseases among Chinese elderly and investigates how healthy lifestyles moderate this relationship. The results show that improvement in healthy food accessibility and diversity decreases both the probability and the number of diet-related diseases that the elderly suffer. Having more healthy lifestyle factors is associated with a lower risk of suffering from diet-related diseases and strengthens the negative effect of healthy food environment on suffered diet-related diseases. Heterogeneity effect analysis suggests that the relationship between objective food environment and diet-related diseases differs by city scale and income level. The findings of this study shed light on designing tailor-made policies for non-Western countries to promote healthy aging.

Keywords: objective food environment; healthy aging; healthy food accessibility; healthy food diversity; lifestyle factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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