TY - JOUR
T1 - Availability of healthy foods and dietary patterns
T2 - The Multi-Ethnic study of atherosclerosis
AU - Franco, Manuel
AU - Diez-Roux, Ana V.
AU - Nettleton, Jennifer A.
AU - Lazo, Mariana
AU - Brancati, Frederick
AU - Caballero, Benjamin
AU - Glass, Thom
AU - Moore, Latetia V.
PY - 2009/3/1
Y1 - 2009/3/1
N2 - Background: Inadequate availability of healthy foods may be a barrier to achieving recommended diets. Objective: The objective was to study the association between the directly measured availability of healthy foods and diet quality. Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 759 participants from the Baltimore site of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Diet was characterized by using a food-frequency questionnaire and summarized by using 2 empirically derived dietary patterns reflecting low-and high-quality diets. For each participant, the availability of healthy foods was directly assessed by using 3 measures: in all food stores within their census tract, in their closest food store, and in all food stores within 1 mile (1.6 km) of their residence. Results: Twenty-four percent of the black participants lived in neighborhoods with a low availability of healthy food compared with 5% of white participants (P < 0.01). After adjustment for age, sex, income, and education, a lower availability of healthy foods in the tract of residence or in the closest store was associated with higher scores on the low-quality dietary pattern (P < 0.05). Less consistent associations were observed for the high-quality dietary pattern. Conclusions: Healthy foods were less available for black participants. Low availability of healthy foods was associated with a lower-quality diet. The extent to which improvements in the availability of healthy foods results in higher-quality diets deserves further investigation.
AB - Background: Inadequate availability of healthy foods may be a barrier to achieving recommended diets. Objective: The objective was to study the association between the directly measured availability of healthy foods and diet quality. Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 759 participants from the Baltimore site of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Diet was characterized by using a food-frequency questionnaire and summarized by using 2 empirically derived dietary patterns reflecting low-and high-quality diets. For each participant, the availability of healthy foods was directly assessed by using 3 measures: in all food stores within their census tract, in their closest food store, and in all food stores within 1 mile (1.6 km) of their residence. Results: Twenty-four percent of the black participants lived in neighborhoods with a low availability of healthy food compared with 5% of white participants (P < 0.01). After adjustment for age, sex, income, and education, a lower availability of healthy foods in the tract of residence or in the closest store was associated with higher scores on the low-quality dietary pattern (P < 0.05). Less consistent associations were observed for the high-quality dietary pattern. Conclusions: Healthy foods were less available for black participants. Low availability of healthy foods was associated with a lower-quality diet. The extent to which improvements in the availability of healthy foods results in higher-quality diets deserves further investigation.
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U2 - 10.3945/ajcn.2008.26434
DO - 10.3945/ajcn.2008.26434
M3 - Article
C2 - 19144728
AN - SCOPUS:61449156333
SN - 0002-9165
VL - 89
SP - 897
EP - 904
JO - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
JF - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
IS - 3
ER -