Thornton Lukar E, Crawford David A, Lamb Karen E, Ball Kylie
Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Int J Health Geogr. 2017 Mar 7;16(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s12942-017-0082-z.
Studies exploring associations between food environments and food purchasing behaviours have been limited by the absence of data on where food purchases occur. Determining where food purchases occur relative to home and how these locations differ by individual, neighbourhood and trip characteristics is an important step to better understanding the association between food environments and food behaviours.
Conducted in Melbourne, Australia, this study recruited participants within sixteen neighbourhoods that were selected based on their socioeconomic characteristics and proximity to supermarkets. The survey material contained a short questionnaire on individual and household characteristics and a food purchasing diary. Participants were asked to record details related to all food purchases made over a 2-week period including food store address. Fifty-six participants recorded a total of 952 food purchases of which 893 were considered valid for analysis. Households and food purchase locations were geocoded and the network distance between these calculated. Linear mixed models were used to determine associations between individual, neighbourhood, and trip characteristics and distance to each food purchase location from home. Additional analysis was conducted limiting the outcome to: (a) purchase made when home was the prior origin (n. 484); and (b) purchases made within supermarkets (n. 317).
Food purchases occurred a median distance of 3.6 km (IQR 1.8, 7.2) from participants' homes. This distance was similar when home was reported as the origin (median 3.4 km; IQR 1.6, 6.4) whilst it was shorter for purchases made within supermarkets (median 2.8 km; IQR 1.6, 5.6). For all purchases, the reported food purchase location was further from home amongst the youngest age group (compared to the oldest age group), when workplace was the origin of the food purchase trip (compared to home), and on weekends (compared to weekdays). Differences were also observed by neighbourhood characteristics.
This study has demonstrated that many food purchases occur outside what is traditionally considered the residential neighbourhood food environment. To better understand the role of food environments on food purchasing behaviours, further work is needed to develop more appropriate food environment exposure measures.
由于缺乏食品购买地点的数据，探索食品环境与食品购买行为之间关联的研究受到了限制。确定食品购买地点相对于家的位置，以及这些位置如何因个人、社区和出行特征而有所不同，是更好地理解食品环境与食品行为之间关联的重要一步。
本研究在澳大利亚墨尔本进行，在16个根据社会经济特征和与超市的距离选定的社区招募了参与者。调查材料包括一份关于个人和家庭特征的简短问卷以及一本食品购买日记。参与者被要求记录在两周内所有食品购买的相关细节，包括食品店地址。56名参与者共记录了952次食品购买，其中893次被认为可用于分析。对家庭和食品购买地点进行了地理编码，并计算了它们之间的网络距离。使用线性混合模型来确定个人、社区和出行特征与从家到每个食品购买地点的距离之间的关联。还进行了额外分析，将结果限制为：(a) 以家为前一站出发地时的购买（n = 484）；以及 (b) 在超市内的购买（n = 317）。
食品购买地点与参与者家的距离中位数为3.6公里（四分位距1.8，7.2）。当报告家为出发地时，这个距离类似（中位数3.4公里；四分位距1.6，6.4），而在超市内的购买距离较短（中位数2.8公里；四分位距1.6，5.6）。对于所有购买，在最年轻年龄组中（与最年长年龄组相比），当工作场所是食品购买行程的出发地时（与家相比），以及在周末时（与工作日相比），报告的食品购买地点离家更远。在社区特征方面也观察到了差异。
本研究表明，许多食品购买发生在传统上被认为是居民区食品环境之外的地方。为了更好地理解食品环境对食品购买行为的作用，需要进一步开展工作以制定更合适的食品环境暴露测量方法。
