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. 2020 May 12;17(10):3354.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103354.

Food Environment in the Lower Mississippi Delta: Food Deserts, Food Swamps and Hot Spots

Melissa Goodman  1 , Jessica Thomson  1 , Alicia Landry  2
Affiliations

Food Environment in the Lower Mississippi Delta: Food Deserts, Food Swamps and Hot Spots

Melissa Goodman et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The objectives for this study were to examine the location and density of measured food outlets in five rural towns in the Lower Mississippi Delta, determine the spatial location of Delta Healthy Sprouts (DHS) participants' homes in the food environment, and examine relationships between the spatial location of participants' homes and their diet quality. Using a food desert/food swamp framework, food outlet geographic locations were analyzed in relation to one another, the distance between DHS participants' residence and closest food outlets by class were computed, and associations among residents' diet quality, hot spot status, and census tract classification were explored. Of 266 food outlets identified, 11 (4%), 86 (32%), 50 (19%), and 119 (45%) were classified as grocery stores (GS), convenience stores (CS), full-service restaurants (FS), or fast food restaurants (FF), respectively. A third of participants lived in CS hot spots, while 22% lived in FF hot spots. DHS participants lived closer in miles to CS (0.4) and FF (0.5) as compared to GS (1.6) and FS (1.1) outlets. Participants bought most groceries at national chain grocery stores rather than their closest grocery store. The food environments of the five towns and associated neighborhoods in which DHS participants resided were not supportive of healthful eating, containing both food deserts and food swamps, often in overlapping patterns.

Keywords: diet quality; food deserts; food environment; food swamps; hot spot analysis; spatial analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Spatial distribution and clustering (hot spots) of convenience stores in five rural Lower Mississippi Delta towns.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spatial distribution and clustering (hot spots) of fast food restaurants in five rural Lower Mississippi Delta towns.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spatial distribution of grocery stores in relation to census tract income and food access classification and hot spot type in the five rural Lower Mississippi Delta towns.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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