Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, 2201 S. Gaylord St., Denver, CO 80210, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2015 Oct;142:202-13. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.010. Epub 2015 Aug 15.
Differential access to healthy foods has been hypothesized to contribute to disparities in eating behaviors and health outcomes. While food deserts have been researched extensively in developed Anglophone countries, evidence from low- and middle-income countries is still scarce. In Mexico, prevalence of obesity is among the highest worldwide. As obesity has increased nationally and become a widespread public health issue, it is becoming concentrated in the low-income population. This mixed-methods study uses a multidimensional approach to analyze food environments in a low-, middle-, and high-income community in a Mexican city. The study advances understanding of the role that food environments may play in shaping eating patterns by analyzing the density and proximity of food outlet types as well as the variety, quantity, quality, pricing, and promotion of different foods. These measures are combined with in-depth qualitative research with families in the communities, including photo elicitation, to assess perceptions of food access. The central aims of the research were to evaluate physical and economic access and exposure to healthy and unhealthy foods in communities of differing socioeconomic status as well as participants' subjective perceptions of such access and exposure. The findings suggest a need to reach beyond a narrow focus on food store types and the distance from residence to grocery stores when analyzing food access. Results show that excessive access and exposure to unhealthy foods and drinks, or "food swamps," may be a greater concern than food deserts for obesity-prevention policy in Mexico.
人们推测，获得健康食品的机会存在差异，这可能导致饮食行为和健康结果的差异。尽管在发达的英语国家中，人们对食品荒漠进行了广泛的研究，但来自低收入和中等收入国家的证据仍然很少。在墨西哥，肥胖的流行率是世界上最高的之一。随着肥胖症在全国范围内的增加，并成为一个广泛存在的公共卫生问题，它越来越集中在低收入人群中。这项混合方法研究使用多维方法分析了墨西哥一个城市的一个低收入、中等收入和高收入社区的食品环境。该研究通过分析食品销售点类型的密度和接近度以及不同食品的种类、数量、质量、价格和促销情况，来分析食品环境在塑造饮食模式方面可能发挥的作用，从而增进了对这一作用的理解。这些措施与社区家庭的深入定性研究相结合，包括照片启发法，以评估对食品获取的看法。研究的核心目标是评估不同社会经济地位社区的身体和经济获取和接触健康和不健康食品的情况，以及参与者对这种获取和接触的主观看法。研究结果表明，在分析食品获取情况时，需要超越对食品销售点类型和从居住地到杂货店的距离的狭隘关注。结果表明，对于墨西哥的肥胖预防政策而言，过度接触和暴露于不健康的食品和饮料（即“食品荒漠”）可能比食品荒漠更令人担忧。
