Location-driven food choice: Seattle Study

Marut

Food, Health

In निघंटु, there is reference for geo-localized food patterns. How different region’s local conditions affect your food choices.

We have written about it here:

Varna System, Geology ,Farming & Your Food, Your health

GEOGRAPHY and Cognitive Development link

Now, this new statistical population health study called Seattle Obesity Study (SOS), gives some hint about it.

Among all three socioeconomic indicators (income, education and residential property values), residential property values captured strongest gradient in soda and salad consumption.

Here, higher property values mean residential area near to waterfront, luxury and lavish. Even higher income families living away from water-front had more soda intake (junk food). The impact of surroundings on food-selection is interesting!


Research

Soda, salad, and socioeconomic status: Findings from the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS)


 

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Seattle residents who live in waterfront neighborhoods tend to have healthier diets compared to those who live along Interstate-5 and Aurora Avenue, according to new research on social disparities from the University of Washington School of Public Health. The study used local data to model food consumption patterns by city block. Weekly servings of salad and soda served as proxies for diet quality.

The dramatic geographic disparities between salad eaters and soda drinkers were driven by house prices, according to the study. The lowest property values were associated with less salad and more soda; the opposite was true of the highest property values, after adjusting for demographics.

This is the first study to model eating patterns and diet quality at the census-block level, the smallest geographic unit used by the U.S. Census Bureau. The paper, published Jan. 9 in the journal Social Science and Medicine — Population Health, provides a new area-based tool to identify communities most in need of interventions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.

“Our dietary choices and health are determined to a very large extent by where we live,” said the study’s lead author, Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology and director of the Nutritional Sciences Program and Center for Public Health Nutrition at the School. “In turn, where we live can be determined by education, incomes and access to both material and social resources. We need a closer look at the socioeconomic determinants of health.”

Researchers geo-localized dietary data of nearly 1,100 adult participants of the Seattle Obesity Study based on their home addresses, and linked them to residential property values obtained from the King County tax assessor. Information on age, gender and race/ethnicity as well as education and annual household income were gathered via telephone surveys. Participants were also asked how often they ate salad and/or drank soda. Healthy Eating Index scores, a measure of diet quality, were calculated for each participant. Scores range from 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating better diet quality.

People who ate more salad tended to have higher Healthy Eating Index scores associated with more healthy eating behaviors. People who drank more soda tended to have lower scores.

While the disparities of soda consumption by neighborhood were clear, there was no significant difference by age, income or education. However, researchers did find that Black and Hispanic residents reported more frequent soda consumption than White residents. Women tended to eat more salad than men, as did adults age 55 and older. Adults with some college education or more consumed salad more often every week than those with only a high school education or less. Also, people earning $50,000 or more ate more salad per week than those earning less than $50,000 annually. There was no significant difference in salad consumption by race or ethnicity.

“Salad and soda are the two hallmarks of a healthy versus an unhealthy diet,” Drewnowski said. “We now show that they tend to be consumed by different people with different education and incomes, living in different neighborhoods in Seattle.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827318301113?via%3Dihub

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