Title Information
Title
A Spatial Analysis of the Food Environment and Overweight and Obesity Among Rhode Island Youth
Type of Resource
text
Name: Personal
Name Part
Guevara, Esmeralda
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Vivier, Patrick
Role
Role Term: Text
Advisor
Name: Personal
Name Part
Clark, Melissa
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Rogers, Michelle
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. School of Public Health
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2020
Physical Description
Extent
, None p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note: thesis
Thesis (M. P. H.)--Brown University, 2020
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Background: Obesity is a serious and common health problem in the U.S. that affects 18.5% of children. Thirty percent of Rhode Island youth ages 2-17 are overweight and obese. This study examined how proximity to food sources differed at the block group and town level stratified by socioeconomic risk and how the average distance to a food source was associated with child overweight and obesity rates in Rhode Island. Methods: Food environment data were collected from website searches and categorized into 13 groups. Residences in Rhode Island were obtained from the Rhode Island Enhanced 9-1-1 dataset. Eight correlated variables from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey were used to measure high and low socioeconomic risk at the block group and town level. Food environment and residential addresses were geocoded using ArcGIS. The proximity of residences to food sources was calculated using ArcGIS Network Analyst. Weighted linear regression models were used to assess the association between mean driving distance to food source locations in each town and the prevalence of child overweight and obesity in Rhode Island children ages 2-17, using Stata. Results: All food sources were closer to residences in the high socioeconomic risk group than the low-risk group at the block group and town level. Convenience stores (adjusted beta= -3.67; 95% CI= -6.63,-0.71), sit-down restaurants (adjusted beta= -3.85; 95% CI=-7.17,-0.53), and snack and beverage stores (adjusted beta= -2.53; 95% CI= -4.56, -0.49) showed the largest associations with prevalence of child overweight and obesity. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the shorter the distance to a food source, the higher the rate of child overweight and obesity. Efforts to better understand the food environment are needed to address overweight and obesity among youth.
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01042770")
Topic
Obesity in children
Language
Language Term (ISO639-2B)
English
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20200720
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/pgkn-vs40
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
All rights reserved. Collection is open to the Brown community for research.