Research & Practice
Comparing food desert and non-food desert residents by key socio-demographic variables, distance to supermarkets, supermarket type by price, diet quality and obesity in King Co, WA
The causes of obesity are multi-factorial; however, decreased access to healthy and affordable foods has emerged as an important factor. Areas where access to healthy and affordable foods is limited are known as food deserts. Although the definition of food deserts has evolved since the term was coined in the early 1990s, it is currently defined by the USDA using distance and income as the main criteria and census tracts as the geographic unit.
A new web-based tool called the USDA Food Desert Locator was developed in 2011 to identify food desert census tracts across the U.S. using the USDA definition. This study utilizes information from the USDA Food Desert Locator to enhance a secondary data analysis of the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS).
The overall goal of this study is to describe and compare the socioeconomic status (SES) of participants enrolled in the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS), a large county based study of food cost, access and quality. This study will also analyze the effects of residing in a food desert on measures of diet quality and obesity measures such as body mass index (BMI) among SOS participants.
Materials Available
Project Type(s): Master's Thesis
Author(s): Lola Sachiko Stronach
Program(s): Master of Public Health, RDN Training
Year: 2012
Adviser(s):