Heller School for Social Policy and Managem, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Qual Health Res. 2013 May;23(5):665-78. doi: 10.1177/1049732313479451. Epub 2013 Feb 26.
Research demonstrates that food desert environments limit low-income shoppers' ability to purchase healthy foods, thereby increasing their likelihood of diet-related illnesses. We sought to understand how individuals in an urban American food desert make grocery-purchasing decisions, and specifically why unhealthy purchases arise. Analysis is based on ethnographic data from participant observation, 37 in-depth interviews, and three focus groups with low-income, primarily African American shoppers with children. We found participants had detailed knowledge of and preference for healthy foods, but the obligation to consistently provide food for their families required them to apply specific decision criteria which, combined with structural qualities of the supermarket environment, increased unhealthy purchases and decreased healthy purchases. Applying situated cognition theory, we constructed an emic model explaining this widely shared grocery-purchasing decision process and its implications. This context-specific understanding of behavior suggests that multifaceted, system-level approaches to intervention are needed to increase healthy purchasing in food deserts.
研究表明，食品荒漠环境限制了低收入购物者购买健康食品的能力，从而增加了他们患与饮食相关疾病的可能性。我们试图了解城市食品荒漠中的个人如何做出杂货购买决策，特别是为什么会出现不健康的购买行为。分析基于对有孩子的低收入、主要是非洲裔美国购物者进行的参与式观察、37 次深度访谈和 3 次焦点小组的民族志数据。我们发现参与者对健康食品有详细的了解和偏好，但为家人提供食物的义务要求他们应用特定的决策标准，这些标准加上超市环境的结构特性，增加了不健康的购买，减少了健康的购买。应用情境认知理论，我们构建了一个本土模型，解释了这种广泛存在的杂货购买决策过程及其影响。这种针对行为的具体背景的理解表明，需要采取多方面的、系统层面的干预措施，才能增加在食品荒漠中购买健康食品的行为。
