Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, Michigan State University, 316 Natural Resources, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2011 Jan 31;11:68. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-68.
The prevalence of obesity and overweight in youth has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and some researchers hypothesize that increased consumption of low-nutrient, energy-dense foods is a key contributor. The potential importance of food retailers near schools has received increasing attention, but public health research and policy has focused primarily on fast food restaurants. Less is known about the relationship between overweight/obesity and other types of retailers. This study aims to investigate the potential associations between nearby 1) fast food restaurants, 2) convenience stores, and 3) supermarkets, and rates of overweight students in California schools.
We examined the rate of overweight ninth grade students in public schools in 2007 using linear regression. The percentage of overweight students per school was determined by a state required physical fitness test, with three different options for measuring individual body composition. Our key independent variables were the presence of three different types of retailers within 800 m network buffers of the schools. Additional independent variables included school ethnic, gender and socioeconomic composition, as well as urban/non-urban location. We obtained the data from the California Department of Education and ESRI, Inc.
The presence of a convenience store within a 10-minute walking distance of a school was associated with a higher rate of overweight students than schools without nearby convenience stores, after controlling for all school-level variables in the regression (1.2%, 95% confidence interval 0.03, 2.36). Nearby fast food restaurants and supermarkets, however, were not associated with school rates of overweight students.
Public health researchers and policy-makers interested in the food environments outside schools should expand their recent focus on nearby fast food restaurants to include convenience stores, which may also be important sources of low-nutrient, energy-dense foods for students.
自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，青少年肥胖和超重的比例急剧上升，一些研究人员假设，低营养、高能量食物的消费增加是一个关键因素。学校附近食品零售商的潜在重要性越来越受到关注，但公共卫生研究和政策主要集中在快餐店。关于超重/肥胖与其他类型零售商之间的关系，人们了解较少。本研究旨在调查学校附近的 1）快餐店、2）便利店和 3）超市与加利福尼亚州学生超重率之间的潜在关联。
我们使用线性回归分析了 2007 年加利福尼亚州公立学校 9 年级学生超重的比例。通过一项州立体能测试确定每个学校超重学生的比例，该测试有三种不同的个体身体成分测量方法。我们的主要自变量是学校 800 米网络缓冲区中存在三种不同类型的零售商。其他自变量包括学校的种族、性别和社会经济构成，以及城市/非城市位置。我们从加利福尼亚州教育部和 ESRI，Inc. 获取了数据。
在控制回归模型中所有学校层面的变量后，与没有附近便利店的学校相比，距离学校 10 分钟步行路程内有便利店的学校超重学生比例更高（1.2%，95%置信区间 0.03，2.36）。然而，附近的快餐店和超市与学校超重学生的比例没有关联。
关注学校外部食品环境的公共卫生研究人员和政策制定者应将其最近对附近快餐店的关注扩大到便利店，便利店也可能是学生低营养、高能量食物的重要来源。
