University of California, San Diego, USA.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2012 May 20;9:58. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-9-58.
Food environment studies have focused on ethnic and income disparities in food access. Few studies have investigated distance travelled for food and did not aim to inform the geographic scales at which to study the relationship between food environments and obesity. Further, studies have not considered neighborhood design as a predictor of food purchasing behavior.
Atlanta residents (N = 4800) who completed a travel diary and reported purchasing or consuming food at one of five food locations were included in the analyses. A total of 11,995 food-related trips were reported. Using mixed modeling to adjust for clustering of trips by participants and households, person-level variables (e.g. demographics), neighborhood-level urban form measures, created in GIS, and trip characteristics (e.g. time of day, origin and destination) were investigated as correlates of distance travelled for food and frequency of grocery store and fast food outlet trips.
Mean travel distance for food ranged from 4.5 miles for coffee shops to 6.3 miles for superstores. Type of store, urban form, type of tour, day of the week and ethnicity were all significantly related to distance travelled for food. Origin and destination environment, type of tour, day of week, age, gender, income, ethnicity, vehicle access and obesity status were all significantly related to visiting a grocery store. Home neighborhood environment, day of week, type of tour, gender, income, education level, age, and obesity status were all significantly related to likelihood of visiting a fastfood outlet.
The present study demonstrated that people travel sizeable distances for food and this distance is related to urban. Results suggest that researchers need to employ different methods to characterize food environments than have been used to assess urban form in studies of physical activity. Food is most often purchased while traveling from locations other than home, so future studies should assess the food environment around work, school or other frequently visited destinations, as well as along frequently traveled routes.
食品环境研究主要集中在食品获取方面的种族和收入差距上。很少有研究调查人们为购买食品而出行的距离，也没有旨在为研究食品环境与肥胖之间的关系提供地理尺度的相关研究。此外，这些研究并未将邻里设计作为购买食品行为的预测指标。
本研究纳入了完成旅行日记并在五个食品地点之一购买或食用食品的亚特兰大居民（N=4800）。共报告了 11995 次与食品相关的旅行。使用混合模型来调整参与者和家庭的旅行聚类，对个人层面的变量（如人口统计学特征）、在 GIS 中创建的邻里层面的城市形态测量值以及旅行特征（如一天中的时间、出发地和目的地）进行分析，以研究其与出行距离和去杂货店和快餐店频率的相关性。
食品出行的平均距离范围从咖啡店的 4.5 英里到杂货店的 6.3 英里。商店类型、城市形态、旅行类型、一周中的天数和种族都与出行距离显著相关。出发地和目的地环境、旅行类型、一周中的天数、年龄、性别、收入、种族、是否有交通工具和肥胖状况都与去杂货店有关。家庭邻里环境、一周中的天数、旅行类型、性别、收入、教育程度、年龄和肥胖状况都与去快餐店的可能性显著相关。
本研究表明，人们为购买食品会出行相当远的距离，且出行距离与城市形态有关。结果表明，研究人员需要采用不同的方法来描述食品环境，而不是像评估体力活动的城市形态研究中那样使用现有的方法。食品通常是在从家以外的其他地方旅行时购买的，因此未来的研究应该评估工作、学校或其他常去目的地周围的食品环境，以及经常出行路线上的食品环境。
