Food Environment as a Determinant in Weight and Diet Change among Women

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by the investigator): Recently more attention has been directed toward understanding how the environment may be associated with improving health outcomes. Research has begun to disentangle the effects the neighborhood has on individuals'risk for obesity and poor diet quality. Yet, many studies have not looked at objective and perceived measures of the food environment simultaneously and more importantly these studies have not been able to measure how the environment may influence weight and diet over time, especially among low income populations. The proposed research fills an important gap in our understanding of how the perceived and objective measures of food environment may be associated with weight and diet among low-income populations. To understand the role of the food environment, this study will examine the role of how perceived neighborhood accessibility and availability and in-store food availability and affordability may modify the relationship between participation in a weight loss intervention and the outcome of weight and diet quality change. In addition, we will look at the objectively measured neighborhood food environment and in-store food availability as a modifier in the same relationship. To measure perception of accessibility, neighborhood and in-store availability, and affordability, we will use a developed and tested survey among low-income midlife women participating in a behavioral weight loss randomized controlled trial (Weight-Wise) in 6 counties in North Carolina. The objective food environment measures will use the following methods: 1) spatial depiction of available food stores using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and 2) a food store audit for characterizing in-store availability of healthy food options.