Access to Healthful Foods among an Urban Food Insecure Population: Perceptions versus Reality

作者：Freedman Darcy A^*; Bell Bethany A

来源：Journal of Urban Health-Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2009, 86(6): 825-838.

DOI：10.1007/s11524-009-9408-x

• Food security
• Food access
• Local food environment
• Perceptions of food access
• Urban
• Social determinants of health

The influence of local food environments on the risk for obesity is important overall, but may be particularly important for food insecure populations in urban settings. Access to healthful foods is most limited among racial and ethnic minorities and low-income populations; these same populations experience the highest rates of obesity and food insecurity. Few valid and reliable measures have been developed to assess the quality of local food environments. This research addresses this gap by introducing an inventory for measuring self-reported perceptions of food access and then compares the perceptions measure to objective assessments of local food environments. Data are focused on an urban population experiencing disproportionate rates of food insecurity. The four-item perceptions of food access inventory had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.80). Participants' perceptions of access to healthful foods mirrored the reality of their food environment; however, perceptions of access to alcohol and tobacco were less accurate. Findings suggest that people living in low-income, urban, minority, and food insecure communities can validly assess (in)access to healthful foods. Future research is needed to further validate the perceptions of food access measure introduced and, more importantly, to develop strategies for increasing access to healthful foods in food insecure contexts.

• 出版日期2009-11