Conceptualizing and comparing neighborhood and activity space measures for food environment research

Crawford, Thomas W.; Pitts, Stephanie B. Jilcott; McGuirt, Jared T.; Keyserling, Thomas C.; Ammerman, Alice S.

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.09.007

Cited by 85 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These mechanical and rigid definitions fail to capture the heterogeneity among individuals’ actual travel activity. Alternatively, researchers have proposed individualized measures of food environment based on travel areas that allow for more insight on how the food environment influences dietary and food shopping choices (27–30). The spatial-temporal analysis of this article is one approach to objectively analyze individual travel activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Neighborhood Food Environments: Distance Traveled to Food Establishments in 5 US Cities, 2009–2011

Liu¹,

Han²,

Cohen³

2015

Prev. Chronic Dis.

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IntroductionAccurate conceptualizations of neighborhood environments are important in the design of policies and programs aiming to improve access to healthy food. Neighborhood environments are often defined by administrative units or buffers around points of interest. An individual may eat and shop for food within or outside these areas, which may not reflect accessibility of food establishments. This article examines the relevance of different definitions of food environments.MethodsWe collected data on trips to food establishments using a 1-week food and travel diary and global positioning system devices. Spatial-temporal clustering methods were applied to identify homes and food establishments visited by study participants.ResultsWe identified 513 visits to food establishments (sit-down restaurants, fast-food/convenience stores, malls or stores, groceries/supermarkets) by 135 participants in 5 US cities. The average distance between the food establishments and homes was 2.6 miles (standard deviation, 3.7 miles). Only 34% of the visited food establishments were within participants’ neighborhood census tract. Buffers of 1 or 2 miles around the home covered 55% to 65% of visited food establishments. There was a significant difference in the mean distances to food establishments types (P = .008). On average, participants traveled the longest distances to restaurants and the shortest distances to groceries/supermarkets.ConclusionMany definitions of the neighborhood food environment are misaligned with individual travel patterns, which may help explain the mixed findings in studies of neighborhood food environments. Neighborhood environments defined by actual travel activity may provide more insight on how the food environment influences dietary and food shopping choices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Neighborhood Food Environments: Distance Traveled to Food Establishments in 5 US Cities, 2009–2011

Liu¹,

Han²,

Cohen³

2015

Prev. Chronic Dis.

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“…Activity spaces appear to be larger than either traditionally defined or individually perceived neighborhoods (Crawford, Jilcott Pitts, McGuirt, Keyserling, & Ammerman, 2014). For adults, having at least one friend in their neighborhood (as defined by the respondent) was related to having a smaller activity space, and moving in the past two years was related to larger activity spaces (Jones & Pebley, 2014).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Alternative to Residential Neighborhoods: An Exploratory Study of How Activity Spaces and Perception of Neighborhood Social Processes Relate to Maladaptive Parenting

Freisthler

Thomas

Curry

2015

Child Youth Care Forum

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Background The environments where parents spend time, such as at work, at their child's school, or with friends and family, may exert a greater influence on their parenting behaviors than the residential neighborhoods where they live. These environments, termed activity spaces, provide individualized information about the where parents go, offering a more detailed understanding of the environmental risks and resources to which parents are exposed. Objective This study conducts a preliminary examination of how neighborhood context, social processes, and individual activity spaces are related to a variety of parenting practices. Methods Data were collected from 42 parents via door-to-door surveys in one neighborhood area. Survey participants provided information about punitive and non-punitive parenting practices, the locations where they conducted daily living activities, social supports, and neighborhood social processes. OLS regression procedures were used to examine covariates related to the size of parent activity spaces. Negative binomial models assessed how activity spaces were related to four punitive and five non-punitive parenting practices. Results With regards to size of parents' activity spaces, male caregivers and those with a local (within neighborhood) primary support member had larger activity spaces. Size of a parent's activity space is negatively related to use of punitive parenting, but generally not related to non-punitive parenting behaviors. Conclusions These findings suggest social workers should assess where parents spend their time and get socially isolated parents involved in activities that could result in less use of punitive parenting.

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“…The second approach recognizes that predefined areas do not necessarily represent what residents perceive as their neighbourhood , but this leaves the challenge of how to define and measure self‐defined neighbourhoods . A small but growing literature has proposed methods to delineate self‐defined neighbourhood limits in health‐related studies . However, so far, most studies consist of small samples, with fewer than 70 participants .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A small but growing literature has proposed methods to delineate self‐defined neighbourhood limits in health‐related studies . However, so far, most studies consist of small samples, with fewer than 70 participants . Traditional paper maps on which subjects were asked to draw the limits of the area they perceive as their neighbourhood were commonly used .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐defined residential neighbourhoods: size variations and correlates across five European urban regions

et al. 2016

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SummaryThe neighbourhood is recognized as an important unit of analysis in research on the relation between obesogenic environments and development of obesity. One important challenge is to define the limits of the residential neighbourhood, as perceived by study participants themselves, in order to improve our understanding of the interaction between contextual features and patterns of obesity. An innovative tool was developed in the framework of the SPOTLIGHT project to identify the boundaries of neighbourhoods as defined by participants in five European urban regions. The aims of this study were (i) to describe self-defined neighbourhood (size and overlap with predefined residential area) according to the characteristics of the sampling administrative neighbourhoods (residential density and socioeconomic status) within the five study regions and (ii) to determine which individual or/and environmental factors are associated with variations in size of self-defined neighbourhoods. Self-defined neighbourhood size varies according to both individual factors (age, educational level, length of residence and attachment to neighbourhood) and contextual factors. These findings have consequences for how residential neighbourhoods are defined and operationalized and can inform how self-defined neighbourhoods may be used in research on associations between contextual characteristics and health outcomes such as obesity.

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Conceptualizing and comparing neighborhood and activity space measures for food environment research

Cited by 85 publications

References 53 publications

Beyond Neighborhood Food Environments: Distance Traveled to Food Establishments in 5 US Cities, 2009–2011

Beyond Neighborhood Food Environments: Distance Traveled to Food Establishments in 5 US Cities, 2009–2011

An Alternative to Residential Neighborhoods: An Exploratory Study of How Activity Spaces and Perception of Neighborhood Social Processes Relate to Maladaptive Parenting

Self‐defined residential neighbourhoods: size variations and correlates across five European urban regions

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