Jablonski Becca B R, McFadden Dawn Thilmany, Colpaart Ashley
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, B337 Clark Building, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1172, USA.
J Community Health. 2016 Oct;41(5):910-23. doi: 10.1007/s10900-016-0171-0.
This paper uses the results from a community food security assessment survey of 684 residents and three focus groups in Pueblo County, Colorado to examine the question: what community and individual factors contribute to or alleviate food insecurity, and are these factors consistent throughout a sub-county population. Importantly, we use a technique called cluster analysis to endogenously determine the key factors pertinent to food access and fruit and vegetable consumption. Our results show significant heterogeneity among sub-population clusters in terms of the community and individual factors that would make it easier to get access to fruits and vegetables. We find two distinct clusters of food insecure populations: the first was significantly less likely to identify increased access to fruits and vegetables proximate to where they live or work as a way to improve their household's healthy food consumption despite being significantly less likely to utilize a personal vehicle to get to the store; the second group did not report significant challenges with access, rather with affordability. We conclude that though interventions focused on improving the local food retail environment may be important for some subsamples of the food insecure population, it is unclear that proximity to a store with healthy food will support enhanced food security for all. We recommend that future research recognizes that determinants of food insecurity may vary within county or zip code level regions, and that multiple interventions that target sub-population clusters may elicit better improvements in access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables.
本文利用对科罗拉多州普韦布洛县684名居民和三个焦点小组进行的社区粮食安全评估调查结果，来研究以下问题：哪些社区和个人因素会导致或缓解粮食不安全状况，以及这些因素在一个县以下的人口中是否一致。重要的是，我们使用一种称为聚类分析的技术来内生地确定与粮食获取以及水果和蔬菜消费相关的关键因素。我们的结果表明，在亚人群聚类中，就那些会使获取水果和蔬菜变得更容易的社区和个人因素而言，存在显著的异质性。我们发现了两类不同的粮食不安全人群：第一类人群显著不太可能将增加在其居住或工作地点附近获取水果和蔬菜作为改善家庭健康食品消费的一种方式，尽管他们使用私人车辆前往商店的可能性也显著较低；第二类人群没有报告获取方面的重大挑战，而是在可负担性方面存在问题。我们得出结论，尽管针对改善当地食品零售环境的干预措施可能对部分粮食不安全人群的子样本很重要，但尚不清楚靠近提供健康食品的商店是否会对所有人的粮食安全改善有帮助。我们建议未来的研究认识到，粮食不安全的决定因素可能在县或邮政编码区域内存在差异，并且针对亚人群聚类的多种干预措施可能会在水果和蔬菜的获取和消费方面带来更好的改善。
