Fast food, race/ethnicity, and income: A geographic analysis

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Background

Environmental factors may contribute to the increasing prevalence of obesity, especially in black and low-income populations. In this paper, the geographic distribution of fast food restaurants is examined relative to neighborhood sociodemographics.

Methods

Using geographic information system software, all fast-food restaurants within the city limits of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2001 were mapped. Buffers around census tracts were generated to simulate 1-mile and 0.5-mile “shopping areas” around and including each tract, and fast food restaurant density (number of restaurants per square mile) was calculated for each area. Using multiple regression, the geographic association between fast food restaurant density and black and low-income neighborhoods was assessed, while controlling for environmental confounders that might also influence the placement of restaurants (commercial activity, presence of major highways, and median home values).

Results

In 156 census tracts, a total of 155 fast food restaurants were identified. In the regression analysis that included the environmental confounders, fast-food restaurant density in shopping areas with 1-mile buffers was independently correlated with median household income and percent of black residents in the census tract. Similar results were found for shopping areas with 0.5-mile buffers. Predominantly black neighborhoods have 2.4 fast-food restaurants per square mile compared to 1.5 restaurants in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Conclusions

The link between fast food restaurants and black and low-income neighborhoods may contribute to the understanding of environmental causes of the obesity epidemic in these populations.

Introduction

While obesity has a range of causes from genetic to environmental, the environment is a key factor in the rapid development of the obesity epidemic.1, 2, 3, 4 Increased food consumption may be the most important of recent changes leading to an obesogenic environment.5 Despite stable physical activity patterns during the last 20 years,6, 7 Americans are eating more,8 portion sizes have increased substantially,9 and inexpensive, high-calorie food is now ubiquitous.

The growth of the fast-food industry has been an important environmental inducement for increased food consumption. In the last 20 years, the percentage of calories attributable to fast-food consumption has increased from 3% to 12% of total calories consumed in the United States.10 U.S. spending on fast food has risen from $6 billion to $110 billion over the last 30 years.11

Fast food is notably high in fat content,12 and studies have found associations between fast food intake and increased body mass index (BMI) and weight gain.13, 14 These same studies reported increased consumption of fast food among nonwhite and low-income populations. Despite these relationships between income, race/ethnicity, obesity, and fast food, limited research to date has examined such associations on an ecologic level. Morland et al.15 examined the relationship between fast-food restaurants, race/ethnicity, and wealth as an ancillary analysis in a large ongoing study based in the United States, and discovered no consistent relationship between wealth, measured with census tract median home values, and fast-food restaurants. Additionally, they found no difference between the numbers of fast-food restaurants in black and white neighborhoods. Reidpath et al.16 found diverging results in a study addressing fast-food restaurant density and median individual income in Melbourne, Australia. Residents of the lowest-income neighborhoods had 2.5 times more exposure to fast-food restaurants than those living in the most affluent neighborhoods. The current study was an assessment of whether black and low-income neighborhoods have increased geographic exposure to fast food restaurants.

Section snippets

Definition and identification

Researchers defined fast-food restaurants as chain restaurants that have two or more of the following characteristics: expedited food service, takeout business, limited or no wait staff, and payment tendered prior to receiving food. The national chain restaurants included had at least two restaurants in Orleans Parish (parish is the unique Louisiana designation for a county; the boundaries of Orleans Parish approximate the City of New Orleans), and tend to be recognized as fast-food restaurants

Descriptive

Of the 184 census tracts, a total of 156 met the inclusion criteria. Table 1 provides a list of fast food chains and numbers of restaurants in Orleans Parish. The census tract map of Orleans Parish in Figure 1 shows both the placement of fast food restaurants as well as excluded and included census tracts.

The mean FFRD for shopping areas defined with a 1-mile buffer was 2.48 fast food restaurants per square mile; the mean FFRD for shopping areas defined with a 0.5-mile buffer was 2.54

Discussion

Fast-food restaurants are geographically associated with predominately black and low-income neighborhoods after controlling for commercial activity, presence of highways, and median home values. The percentage of black residents is a more powerful predictor of FFRD than median household income. Predominantly black neighborhoods (i.e., 80% black) have one additional fast-food restaurant per square mile compared with predominantly white neighbohoods (i.e., 80% white). These findings suggest that

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