National trends and disparities in retail food environments in the USA between 1990 and 2014

Abstract

Objective: To describe national disparities in retail food environments by neighbourhood composition (race/ethnicity and socio-economic status) across time and space.

Design: We examined built food environments (retail outlets) between 1990 and 2014 for census tracts in the contiguous USA (n 71 547). We measured retail food environment as counts of all food stores, all unhealthy food sources (including fast food, convenience stores, bakeries and ice cream) and healthy food stores (including supermarkets, fruit and vegetable markets) from National Establishment Time Series business data. Changes in food environment were mapped to display spatial patterns. Multi-level Poisson models, clustered by tract, estimated time trends in counts of food stores with a land area offset and independent variables population density, racial composition (categorised as predominantly one race/ethnicity (>60 %) or mixed), and inflation-adjusted income tertile.

Setting: The contiguous USA between 1990 and 2014.

Participants: All census tracts (n 71 547).

Results: All food stores and unhealthy food sources increased, while the subcategory healthy food remained relatively stable. In models adjusting for population density, predominantly non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, Asian and mixed tracts had significantly more destinations of all food categories than predominantly non-Hispanic White tracts. This disparity increased over time, predominantly driven by larger increases in unhealthy food sources for tracts which were not predominantly non-Hispanic White. Income and food store access were inversely related, although disparities narrowed over time.

Conclusions: Our findings illustrate a national food landscape with both persistent and shifting spatial patterns in the availability of establishments across neighbourhoods with different racial/ethnic and socio-economic compositions.

Keywords: Disparities; Environmental justice; Food environment; Nutrition; Race/ethnicity; Spatial patterning.

Fig. 1

Total count of food retail businesses in the USA by category between 1990 and 2014. *Note: Categories shown are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive. For example, All Food Stores includes Unhealthy Food Sources, Supermarkets, Fruit and Vegetable Markets, and Convenience Stores but does not include restaurants. We defined Unhealthy Food Sources as food stores and restaurants (distinguished from stores as selling items primarily ready to eat, including those for on premise consumption), while All Food Stores do not include unhealthy restaurants

Fig. 2

Geographic patterning of change between 1990 and 2014 in density (stores/km²) of (a) All Food Stores, (b) Unhealthy Food Sources and (c) Healthy Food Stores. Four largest US cities (in 2010) highlighted (New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX)