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Does the choice of neighbourhood supermarket access measure influence associations with individual-level fruit and vegetable consumption? A case study from Glasgow

Thornton, Lukar E., Pearce, Jamie R., Macdonald, Laura, Lamb, Karen E. and Ellaway, Anne 2012, Does the choice of neighbourhood supermarket access measure influence associations with individual-level fruit and vegetable consumption? A case study from Glasgow, International journal of health geographics, vol. 11, no. 29, pp. 1-12.

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Title Does the choice of neighbourhood supermarket access measure influence associations with individual-level fruit and vegetable consumption? A case study from Glasgow
Author(s) Thornton, Lukar E.
Pearce, Jamie R.
Macdonald, Laura
Lamb, Karen E.
Ellaway, Anne
Journal name International journal of health geographics
Volume number 11
Issue number 29
Start page 1
End page 12
Total pages 12
Publisher BioMed Central
Place of publication London, England
Publication date 2012-07-27
ISSN 1476-072X
Keyword(s) geographic information systems
food environment
dietary behaviours
Summary Background
Previous studies have provided mixed evidence with regards to associations between food store access and dietary outcomes. This study examines the most commonly applied measures of locational access to assess whether associations between supermarket access and fruit and vegetable consumption are affected by the choice of access measure and scale.

Method
Supermarket location data from Glasgow, UK (n = 119), and fruit and vegetable intake data from the 'Health and Well-Being' Survey (n = 1041) were used to compare various measures of locational access. These exposure variables included proximity estimates (with different points-of-origin used to vary levels of aggregation) and density measures using three approaches (Euclidean and road network buffers and Kernel density estimation) at distances ranging from 0.4 km to 5 km. Further analysis was conducted to assess the impact of using smaller buffer sizes for individuals who did not own a car. Associations between these multiple access measures and fruit and vegetable consumption were estimated using linear regression models.

Results
Levels of spatial aggregation did not impact on the proximity estimates. Counts of supermarkets within Euclidean buffers were associated with fruit and vegetable consumption at 1 km, 2 km and 3 km, and for our road network buffers at 2 km, 3 km, and 4 km. Kernel density estimates provided the strongest associations and were significant at a distance of 2 km, 3 km, 4 km and 5 km. Presence of a supermarket within 0.4 km of road network distance from where people lived was positively associated with fruit consumption amongst those without a car (coef. 0.657; s.e. 0.247; p0.008).

Conclusions
The associations between locational access to supermarkets and individual-level dietary behaviour are sensitive to the method by which the food environment variable is captured. Care needs to be taken to ensure robust and conceptually appropriate measures of access are used and these should be grounded in a clear a priori reasoning.
Notes This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Language eng
Field of Research 111199 Nutrition and Dietetics not elsewhere classified
Socio Economic Objective 920401 Behaviour and Health
HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Copyright notice ©2012, Thornton et al.
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30047269

Document type: Journal Article
Collections: School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
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Created: Tue, 21 Aug 2012, 11:09:38 EST by Jane Moschetti