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. 2023 Dec 7;23(1):2454.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-17350-8.

A longitudinal analysis of the fluctuation of food stores in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Patrícia Pinheiro de Freitas  1 , Mariana Souza Lopes  2 , Bruna Vieira de Lima Costa  3 , Denise Marques Sales  4 , Mariana Carvalho de Menezes  5 , Patrícia Constante Jaime  6 , Aline Cristine Souza Lopes  7
Affiliations

A longitudinal analysis of the fluctuation of food stores in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Patrícia Pinheiro de Freitas et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Changes in food environments have the potential to affect consumption, nutritional status, and health, and understanding these changes is of utmost importance. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the fluctuation of food stores that sell fruits and vegetables over five years in the health promotion service area of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Methods: This was an ecological study that used data from a food environment audit conducted in the realm of Brazilian PHC. Buffers of 1 mile (equivalent to 1600 m) were created around health promotion services to define food environments. All food stores and open-air food markets that sold fruits and vegetables (FV) within this buffer area were considered eligible. The data collection was performed during two periods: the baseline, in 2013, and after five years, in 2018. This study compares the fluctuation by the type of stores and according to the health vulnerability index (HVI).

Results: After 5 years, 35.2% of the stores were stable; 154 stores were closed, and 155 were opened. The stability was greater in low-vulnerability areas, and the fluctuation differed by type of store only for areas with high vulnerability. The number of supermarket decreased in high HVI territories; and local stores, showed greater stability when compared to specialized FV markets.

Conclusions: The differences in store fluctuations according to the vulnerability of areas demonstrate the importance of food supply policies considering the local characteristics to reduce inequities of access to healthy foods.

Keywords: Food environment; Food stores; Fruits and vegetables; Health service environments; Longitudinal study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Location map of health promotion service, food stores, and vulnerability, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Note: PAS = Programa Academia da Saúde. HVI = Health Vulnerability Index
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Food environment data after five years. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2013–2018. Note: PAS - Programa Academia da Saúde. *Exclusion stores: n = 26, duplicity in the database; n = 8, no longer sold fruit and vegetables; n = 1, place could not be visited due to intense violence. **Exclusion stores: not have HVI information
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Location of the food stores and fluctuation over five years. Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2013–2018. Note: Stables stores = store that remained open after five-years and participated or refused the audit; Closed stores = Stores in the 2013 database that were not in the 2018 database or stores that no longer sell FV in 2018. New stores = Stores in the 2018 database did not exist in 2013 (comparing name and address)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Demographic Density and food stores fluctuation over five years. Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2013–2018. Note: The human development unit (HDU) are units of analysis with relatively homogeneous socioeconomic characteristics, resulting from the aggregation of census tracts with similar characteristics, created for AtlasBR, in a partnership between the United Nations Development Program, and the João Pinheiro Foundation and the Institute of Applied Economic Research. Source: AtlasBR – Atlas Platform for Human Development in Brazil. Available at: www.atlasbrasil.org.br. Accessed: May 5, 2021
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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