Journal
JOURNAL OF URBAN HEALTH-BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE
Volume 94, Issue 1, Pages 75-86Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11524-016-0107-0
Keywords
Food environment; Food swamp; Social disorder; Crime; Food outlets
Funding
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [1R21HL102812-01A1]
- Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) [U01HD086861]
- Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (OD) [U54HD070725]
- Brown Community Healthy Scholarship Program
- Jamie Harding
- Amanda Behrens Buczynski at the Center for a Livable Future
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Few studies have examined how neighborhood contextual features may influence the food outlet mix. We evaluated the relationship between changes in neighborhood crime and changes in the food environment, namely the relative density of unhealthy (or intermediate) food outlets out of total food outlets, or food swamp score, in Baltimore City from 2000 to 2012, using neighborhood fixedeffects linear regression models. Comparing neighborhoods to themselves over time, each unit increase in crime rate was associated with an increase in the food swamp score (b = 0.13; 95% CI, -0.00017 to 0.25). The association with food swamp score was in the same direction for violent crime and in the inverse direction for arrests related to juvenile crimes (proxy of reduced crime), but did not reach statistical significance when examined separately. Unfavorable conditions, such as crime, may deter a critical consumer base, diminishing the capacity of a community to attract businesses that are perceived to be neighborhood enhancing. Addressing these more distal drivers may be important for policies and programs to improve these food environments.
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