Dataset Information

Mobile food vendors in urban neighborhoods-implications for diet and diet-related health by weather and season.

ABSTRACT: This study describes mobile food vendors (street vendors) in Bronx, NY, considering neighborhood-level correlations with demographic, diet, and diet-related health measures from City data. Vendors offering exclusively "less-healthy" foods (e.g., chips, processed meats, sweets) outnumbered vendors offering exclusively "healthier" foods (e.g., produce, whole grains, nuts). Wet days and winter months reduced all vending on streets, but exclusively "less-healthy" vending most. In summer, exclusively "less-healthy" vending per capita inversely correlated with neighborhood-mean fruit-and-vegetable consumption and directly correlated with neighborhood-mean BMI and prevalences of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia (Spearman correlations 0.90-1.00, p values 0.037 to <0.001). In winter, "less-healthy" vending per capita directly correlated with proportions of Hispanic residents and those living in poverty (Spearman correlations 0.90, p values 0.037). Mobile food vending may contribute negatively to urban food-environment healthfulness overall, but exacerbation of demographic, diet, and diet-related health disparities may vary by weather, season, and neighborhood characteristics.

SUBMITTER: Lucan SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4017652 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mobile food vendors in urban neighborhoods-implications for diet and diet-related health by weather and season.

Lucan Sean C SC Maroko Andrew R AR Bumol Joel J Varona Monica M Torrens Luis L Schechter Clyde B CB

Health & place 20140312

This study describes mobile food vendors (street vendors) in Bronx, NY, considering neighborhood-level correlations with demographic, diet, and diet-related health measures from City data. Vendors offering exclusively "less-healthy" foods (e.g., chips, processed meats, sweets) outnumbered vendors offering exclusively "healthier" foods (e.g., produce, whole grains, nuts). Wet days and winter months reduced all vending on streets, but exclusively "less-healthy" vending most. In summer, exclusively ...[more]

PMID: 24631725

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Project description:BackgroundFood away from home (FAFH) in the US is associated with adverse health outcomes, and food dollars spent on FAFH continues to increase. FAFH studies have typically focused on restaurants and carryout establishments, but mobile food vendors - popularly known in the US as food trucks - have become more numerous and are an understudied segment of FAFH. The objective of this study was to assess mobile food vendors, their attitudes toward health and nutrition, and the foods they serve.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study of 41 mobile food vendors in Michigan, US. The survey contained questions about food and nutrition attitudes, such as barriers to putting healthy items on menus and perceived agreement with healthy food preparation practices. Participants were classified into a healthy and a less healthy attitude group based on whether they believed healthy menu items could be successful or not. In addition, participant menus were collected and analyzed according to whether menu items were healthy, moderately healthy, or unhealthy. Descriptive, univariate, and bivariate analyses were conducted.ResultsTwo-thirds of the participants felt that healthy menu items could be successful, and yet taste and value were the most important menu item success factors, each rated as important by 100% of the participants. Low consumer demand was the biggest barrier to putting healthy items on the menu (76%) whereas lack of chef interest (29%) and need for special training (24%) were the smallest. 72% of the vendors offered at least one healthy menu item, but only 20% of all reviewed menu items were healthy overall. There was no difference in the proportion of menu items that were healthy when comparing those with healthy attitudes (23% of menu items healthy) to those less healthy attitudes (17% of menu items healthy, p = 0.349).ConclusionsMobile food vendors had positive views about putting healthy items on menus. However, a low proportion of menu items were classified as healthy. This suggests that mobile food vendors are promising potential public health partners in improving the health profile of FAFH, but that education of vendors is needed to ensure the success of healthier items.

Project description:Relatively few studies have characterized differences in intra- and inter-neighborhood traffic-related air pollutant (TRAP) concentrations and distance-decay gradients in along an urban highway for the purposes of exposure assessment. The goal of this work was to determine the extent to which intra- and inter-neighborhood differences in TRAP concentrations can be explained by traffic and meteorology in three pairs of neighborhoods along Interstate 93 (I-93) in the metropolitan Boston area (USA). We measured distance-decay gradients of seven TRAPs (PNC, pPAH, NO, NOX, BC, CO, PM2.5) in near-highway (<400 m) and background areas (>1 km) in Somerville, Dorchester/South Boston, Chinatown and Malden to determine whether (1) spatial patterns in concentrations and inter-pollutant correlations differ between neighborhoods, and (2) variation within and between neighborhoods can be explained by traffic and meteorology. The neighborhoods ranged in area from 0.5 to 2.3 km2. Mobile monitoring was performed over the course of one year in each pair of neighborhoods (one pair of neighborhoods per year in three successive years; 35-47 days of monitoring in each neighborhood). Pollutant levels generally increased with highway proximity, consistent with I-93 being a major source of TRAP; however, the slope and extent of the distance-decay gradients varied by neighborhood as well as by pollutant, season and time of day. Correlations among pollutants differed between neighborhoods (e.g., ? = 0.35-0.80 between PNC and NOX and ? = 0.11-0.60 between PNC and BC) and were generally lower in Dorchester/South Boston than in the other neighborhoods. We found that the generalizability of near-road gradients and near-highway/urban background contrasts was limited for near-highway neighborhoods in a metropolitan area with substantial local street traffic. Our findings illustrate the importance of measuring gradients of multiple pollutants under different ambient conditions in individual near-highway neighborhoods for health studies involving inter-neighborhood comparisons.

Project description:ImportanceMale youth in lower-resource neighborhoods bear a disproportionate burden of violence involvement, but little is known about clusters of specific violence-related behaviors to inform cross-cutting interventions that address multiple forms of violence.ObjectiveTo examine associations between adult support and patterns of violence and risk or protective behavior co-occurrence among male youths in urban neighborhoods.Design, setting, and participantsCross-sectional analysis of baseline and end-of-program data from a recently completed cluster-randomized sexual violence prevention trial across 20 lower-resource neighborhoods. Participants were male youths, aged 13 to 19 years, enrolled at youth-serving community agencies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from July 27, 2015, to June 5, 2017. Data were analyzed from July 1, 2018, to February 28, 2019.ExposuresSocial support and natural mentoring, as defined by validated survey measures.Main outcomes and measuresValidated survey measures (youth violence, bullying, sexual and dating violence, history of exposure to violence and related adversities, substance use, school engagement, and future orientation) were assessed for detailed co-occurrence patterns using hierarchical clustering, dendrograms, and heatmaps across prespecified domains. Wilcoxon rank sum tests and logistic regression models examined associations between adult support and violence involvement.ResultsAmong 866 participants, the mean (SD) age was 15.5 (1.6) years and 632 participants (77.5%) identified as African American. All 866 participants completed baseline surveys and 577 completed end-of-program surveys. Seven clusters of risk and protective behaviors emerged: (1) school engagement; (2) career and future aspirations; (3) substance use and bullying exposure; (4) exposure to violence and related adversities, sexual violence exposure, peer delinquency, and gang involvement; (5) sexual violence, youth violence, and bullying perpetration; (6) dating abuse perpetration; and (7) physical or sexual partner violence perpetration. The strongest association cluster occurred among sexual violence perpetration behaviors. Youth with high social support engaged in significantly fewer of the 40 prespecified risk behaviors (high social support median [interquartile range], 8 [5-12] behaviors vs low social support median [interquartile range], 10 [6-14] behaviors; mean difference, 1.64 behaviors; 95% CI, 0.63-2.64 behaviors; P = .004). High social support and natural mentoring were both inversely associated with gang involvement (social support: odds ratio [OR], 0.39; 95% CI, 0.22-0.71; and natural mentoring: OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.76) and sexual violence exposure (social support: OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.24-0.64; and natural mentoring: OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.39-0.98).Conclusions and relevanceThese findings suggest that co-occurrence of risk and protective behaviors differ significantly among youth with vs without adult support. Violence prevention interventions designed to leverage adult support should address broader co-occurrence patterns.

Dataset Information

Mobile food vendors in urban neighborhoods-implications for diet and diet-related health by weather and season.

Publications

Mobile food vendors in urban neighborhoods-implications for diet and diet-related health by weather and season.

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