The effect of food environments on fruit and vegetable intake as modified by time spent at home: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveThere is a growing body of research that investigates how the residential neighbourhood context relates to individual diet. However, previous studies ignore participants’ time spent in the residential environment and this may be a problem because time-use studies show that adults’ time-use pattern can significantly vary. To better understand the role of exposure duration, we designed a study to examine ‘time spent at home’ as a moderator to the residential food environment-diet association.DesignCross-sectional observational study.SettingsCity of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Participants2411 adults aged 25–65.Primary outcome measureFrequency of vegetable and fruit intake (VFI) per day.ResultsTo examine how time spent at home may moderate the relationship between residential food environment and VFI, the full sample was split into three equal subgroups—short, medium and long duration spent at home. We detected significant associations between density of food stores in the residential food environment and VFI for subgroups that spend medium and long durations at home (ie, spending a mean of 8.0 and 12.3 h at home, respectively—not including sleep time), but no associations exist for people who spend the lowest amount of time at home (mean=4.7 h). Also, no associations were detected in analyses using the full sample.ConclusionsOur study is the first to demonstrate that time spent at home may be an important variable to identify hidden population patterns regarding VFI. Time spent at home can impact the association between the residential food environment and individual VFI.

The Impact of Proximity to Wet Markets and Supermarkets on Household Dietary Diversity in Nanjing City, China

“…About 26%, 56%, 74% and 80% of the interviewed households had a network distance to the nearest wet market or supermarket of less than 0.5 km, 1.0 km, 1.5 km and 2.0 km, respectively (Table 8). Assuming a median walking speed for an adult of 4.5 km/h or 1.25 m/s [51], and a 15-min walk as the commonly accepted walking time in food studies [36,52], then anything up to about 1.1 km is an acceptable walking distance.…”

Geographic and socioeconomic distribution of food vendors: a case study of a municipality in the Southern Brazil

“…Healthy food vendors in a neighborhood (farmers' markets and grocery stores that sell fruits and vegetables) can reduce the time spent by low-income families on public or other transportation 15 , and facilitate the adoption of a healthy diet 8 , benefitting the most vulnerable population 15 .…”

Synthèse des données probantes - Accès aux points de vente d’aliments au détail de proximité, alimentation et indice de masse corporelle au Canada : revue systématique

“…L'autodéclaration de la taille et du poids peut constituer une approche efficace lorsque de grands ensembles de données sont utilisés et que l'on tient compte des corrections découlant de déclarations erronées 38 . Neuf études 24,25,27,29,30,31,32,33,34 (53 %) n'ont pas indiqué dans quelle mesure les données sur les aliments au détail correspondaient aux points de vente d'aliments réellement présents sur le terrain. Sur les huit études faisant état de résultats de validation, une étude 35 a effectué des vérifications de terrain sur un petit sous-ensemble de données et a déterminé un taux d'exactitude de 100 %; six études 18,21,23,26,28,36 1,31 (1,11; 1,52) études auraient pu trouver des résultats concluants si la taille de l'échantillon avait été plus importante, il est possible que le pourcentage des associations que nous avons trouvé concluantes quant aux résultats attendus soit conservateur.…”

“…Toutes les études ont utilisé des mesures de l'environnement alimentaire obtenues avec un SIG. Treize études incluaient des mesures de densité 18,19,[23][24][25][28][29][30][32][33][34][35][36] (p. ex. nombre, nombre par secteur), 4 incluaient des mesures de proximité [32][33][34]36 (p. ex.…”

“…Les sources de données pour les points de vente d'aliments et leur emplacement étaient des bases de données exclusivement commerciales (n = 10) 18,19,21,23,25,26,[28][29][30]36 ou des registres de planification ou de santé municipaux (n = 7) 24,27,[31][32][33][34][35] . Parmi les bases de données commerciales, 4 études…”