Food mirages: Geographic and economic barriers to healthful food access in Portland, Oregon

Breyer, Betsy; Voss-Andreae, Adriana

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2013.07.008

Cited by 108 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This upward trend has been facilitated by innovative new methodologies for data collection and analysis. Spatial data and mapping were the most commonly used data collection methods (2,7,11,20,24,41,53). Another major source of data has been large-scale household surveys (28,42,91).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Prasad¹,

Gray²,

Ross³

et al. 2016

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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The research community has shown increasing interest in developing and using metrics to determine the relationships between urban living and health. In particular, we have seen a recent exponential increase in efforts aiming to investigate and apply metrics for urban health, especially the health impacts of the social and built environments as well as air pollution. A greater recognition of the need to investigate the impacts and trends of health inequities is also evident through more recent literature. Data availability and accuracy have improved through new affordable technologies for mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing. However, less

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GIS, another popular tool, assigns spatial coordinates to data that can be mapped, and it can map both spatial and nonspatial information (5,11,55). A number of GIS software utilities are available online, such as ArcGIS (54), and limited versions are sometimes made available for free.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Prasad¹,

Gray²,

Ross³

et al. 2016

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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“…9 Others have attempted to incorporate this dimension using the concept of "food mirages"-neighbourhoods that have full-service stores, yet remain inaccessible to low-income residents because of lack of purchasing power. 10,11 One may therefore conclude that food deserts are a contested concept, with constructs and methodologies continuing to emerge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food deserts in Winnipeg, Canada: a novel method for measuring a complex and contested construct

Slater

Epp-Koop²,

Jakilazek

et al. 2017

Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can

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Introduction “Food deserts” have emerged over the past 20 years as spaces of concern for communities, public health authorities and researchers because of their potential negative impact on dietary quality and subsequent health outcomes. Food deserts are residential geographic spaces, typically in urban settings, where low-income residents have limited or no access to retail food establishments with sufficient variety at affordable cost. Research on food deserts presents methodological challenges including retail food store identification and classification, identification of low-income populations, and transportation and proximity metrics. Furthermore, the complex methods often used in food desert research can be difficult to reproduce and communicate to key stakeholders. To address these challenges, this study sought to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a simple and reproducible method of identifying food deserts using data easily available in the Canadian context. Methods This study was conducted in Winnipeg, Canada in 2014. Food retail establishments were identified from Yellow Pages and verified by public health dietitians. We calculated two scenarios of food deserts based on location of the lowest-income quintile population: (a) living ≥ 500 m from a national chain grocery store, or (b) living ≥ 500 m from a national chain grocery store or a full-service grocery store. Results The number of low-income residents living in a food desert ranged from 64 574 to 104 335, depending on the scenario used. Conclusion This study shows that food deserts affect a significant proportion of the Winnipeg population, and while concentrated in the urban core, exist in suburban neighbourhoods also. The methods utilized represent an accessible and transparent, reproducible process for identifying food deserts. These methods can be used for costeffective, periodic surveillance and meaningful engagement with communities, retailers and policy makers.

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“…However, our analysis suggests that even for urban residents who drive, approximately 30 percent would need to leave their assumed service area to acquire the TFP at lowest cost. Therefore, the service area classification would generally underestimate the areas with limited or more expensive food access, as suggested by Breyer and Voss-Andreae (2013). In addition to improving on the methods for mapping food-access issues, even this limited demonstration of the method has contributed new insight into disparity in food costs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Cost of a Balanced Diet, as a Function of Travel Time and Food Price

Hilbert

Evans-Cowley

Reece

et al. 2014

JAFSCD

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We present a new method for analyzing spatial variation in the cost of a balanced diet, as an alternative to food desert classification. Our specific hypothesis is that the cost of a balanced diet varies according to where one lives, as a function of travel and food item costs. We collected price data for the USDA Thrifty Food Plan from approximately 30 percent of food retail outlets of various kinds in the three Gulf Coast counties of Mississippi, and these prices were extrapolated to the remaining stores. Transportation costs were calculated for both driving by automobile and the combination of walking and public transportation by bus, accounting for both the shoppers' time and the cost of automobile mileage. We developed a "traveling purchaser problem" algorithm to estimate the lowest-cost combination of travel and food costs for purchasing all items in the Thrifty Food Plan for each residential parcel in the study area, and mapped the resulting costs and examined their variation. Estimated costs varied more because of transportation costs than food prices, and ranged from US$109 to US$215 for automobile travel and from Results of this analysis demonstrate that the cost of acquiring a balanced diet varies considerably and more or less continuously. Food is not equally cheap for all; it depends on where one lives. For any given location, an estimate of the cost of a balanced diet, including both food price and transportation, is more useful than a classification as food desert or not in understanding access issues and needs. Furthermore, policy alternatives that are intended to influence access should be evaluated based on how much they influence costs, and for whom, depending on where people live.

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Food mirages: Geographic and economic barriers to healthful food access in Portland, Oregon

Cited by 108 publications

References 48 publications

Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Food deserts in Winnipeg, Canada: a novel method for measuring a complex and contested construct

Mapping the Cost of a Balanced Diet, as a Function of Travel Time and Food Price

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