Community capacity for cancer prevention

Abstract

We pilot-tested a street-level study of availability of physical resources to assess ethnic disparities in community capacity for cancer prevention in forty Brooklyn, NY, census tracts with high proportions of White, African American, or Jamaican immigrant populations. Interns with GIS maps made street-level inventories of food retailers, fast-food restaurants, and commercial exercise facilities. Availability was quantified as resources per capita or square mile. Median income-adjusted number of supermarkets, greengrocers and fast-food restaurants per square mile was significantly higher in Jamaican than in African American or White tracts. Bodegas per capita was greatest in African American tracts, with no significant differences among the population groups in availability of health food stores, or commercial exercise venues.