Journal article
Characterizing food environments near schools in California: A latent class approach simultaneously using multiple food outlet types and two spatial scales
Preventive medicine reports, v 29, 101937
Oct 2022
PMID: 35928596
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
•Low-income schools have greater exposure to unhealthy food outlet types, with weaker associations in rural areas.•The direction of associations between exposure to unhealthy food outlets and school size, type, and race/ethnic composition depend on urbanicity of school location.•In urban areas, schools attended primarily by African American and Asian children are more likely to have greater exposures to unhealthy food outlets.•In urban and rural but not suburban areas, schools attended primarily by Latino children are more likely to have greater exposure to unhealthy food outlets.•In suburban areas, unhealthy food outlets are more likely to cluster near K-12 and high schools compared to elementary schools.
It is challenging to evaluate associations between the food environment near schools with either prevalence of childhood obesity or with socioeconomic characteristics of schools. This is because the food environment has many dimensions, including its spatial distribution. We used latent class analysis to classify public schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas in California into food environment classes based on the availability and spatial distribution of multiple types of unhealthy food outlets nearby. All urban schools had at least one unhealthy food outlet nearby, compared to seventy-two percent of schools in rural areas did. Food environment classes varied in the quantity of available food outlets, the relative mix of food outlet types, and the outlets’ spatial distribution near schools. Regardless of urbanicity, schools in low-income neighborhoods had greater exposure to unhealthy food outlets. The direction of associations between food environment classes and school size, type, and race/ethnic composition depends on the level of urbanicity of the school locations. Urban schools attended primarily by African American and Asian children are more likely to have greater exposures to unhealthy food outlets. In urban and rural but not suburban areas, schools attended primarily by Latino students had more outlets offering unhealthy foods or beverages nearby. In suburban areas, differences in the spatial distribution of food outlets indicates that food outlets are more likely to cluster near K-12 schools and high schools compared to elementary schools. Intervention design and future research need to consider that the associations between food environment exposures and school characteristics differ by urbanicity.
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Details
- Title
- Characterizing food environments near schools in California: A latent class approach simultaneously using multiple food outlet types and two spatial scales
- Creators
- Brisa N. Sánchez - Drexel UniversityHan Fu - University of MichiganMika Matsuzaki - Johns Hopkins UniversityEmma Sanchez-Vaznaugh - San Francisco State University
- Publication Details
- Preventive medicine reports, v 29, 101937
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000888513300036
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85135145139
- Other Identifier
- 991020099748304721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health