Dataset Information

Geographic scale matters in detecting the relationship between neighbourhood food environments and obesity risk: an analysis of driver license records in Salt Lake County, Utah.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Empirical studies of the association between neighbourhood food environments and individual obesity risk have found mixed results. One possible cause of these mixed findings is the variation in neighbourhood geographic scale used. The purpose of this paper was to examine how various neighbourhood geographic scales affected the estimated relationship between food environments and obesity risk.

Design

Cross-sectional secondary data analysis.

Setting

Salt Lake County, Utah, USA.

Participants

403,305 Salt Lake County adults 25-64 in the Utah driver license database between 1995 and 2008.

Analysis

Utah driver license data were geo-linked to 2000 US Census data and Dun & Bradstreet business data. Food outlets were classified into the categories of large grocery stores, convenience stores, limited-service restaurants and full-service restaurants, and measured at four neighbourhood geographic scales: Census block group, Census tract, ZIP code and a 1?km buffer around the resident's house. These measures were regressed on individual obesity status using multilevel random intercept regressions.

Outcome

Obesity.

Results

Food environment was important for obesity but the scale of the relevant neighbourhood differs for different type of outlets: large grocery stores were not significant at all four geographic scales, limited-service restaurants at the medium-to-large scale (Census tract or larger) and convenience stores and full-service restaurants at the smallest scale (Census tract or smaller).

Conclusions

The choice of neighbourhood geographic scale can affect the estimated significance of the association between neighbourhood food environments and individual obesity risk. However, variations in geographic scale alone do not explain the mixed findings in the literature. If researchers are constrained to use one geographic scale with multiple categories of food outlets, using Census tract or 1?km buffer as the neighbourhood geographic unit is likely to allow researchers to detect most significant relationships.

SUBMITTER: Fan JX

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4139648 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Geographic scale matters in detecting the relationship between neighbourhood food environments and obesity risk: an analysis of driver license records in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Fan Jessie X JX Hanson Heidi A HA Zick Cathleen D CD Brown Barbara B BB Kowaleski-Jones Lori L Smith Ken R KR

BMJ open 20140819 8

<h4>Objectives</h4>Empirical studies of the association between neighbourhood food environments and individual obesity risk have found mixed results. One possible cause of these mixed findings is the variation in neighbourhood geographic scale used. The purpose of this paper was to examine how various neighbourhood geographic scales affected the estimated relationship between food environments and obesity risk.<h4>Design</h4>Cross-sectional secondary data analysis.<h4>Setting</h4>Salt Lake Count ...[more]

PMID: 25138805

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Project description:IntroductionAlthough access to a motor vehicle is essential for pursuing social and economic opportunity and ensuring health and well-being, states have increasingly used driver's license suspensions as a means of compelling compliance with a variety of laws and regulations unrelated to driving, including failure to pay a fine or appear in court. Little known about the population of suspended drivers and what geographic resources may be available to them to help mitigate the impact of a suspension.MethodsUsing data from the New Jersey Safety Health Outcomes (NJ-SHO) data warehouse 2004-2018, we compared characteristics of suspended drivers, their residential census tract, as well as access to public transportation and jobs, by reason for the suspension (driving or non-driving related). In addition, we examined trends in the incidence and prevalence of driving- and non-driving-related suspensions by sub-type over time.ResultsWe found that the vast majority (91%) of license suspensions were for non-driving-related events, with the most common reason for a suspension being failure to pay a fine. Compared to drivers with a driving-related suspension or no suspension, non-driving-related suspended drivers lived in census tracts with a lower household median income, higher proportion of black and Hispanic residents and higher unemployment rates, but also better walkability scores and better access to public transportation and jobs.ConclusionsOur study contributes to a growing literature that shows, despite public perception that they are meant to address traffic safety, the majority of suspensions are for non-driving-related events. Further, these non-driving-related suspensions are most common in low-income communities and communities with a high-proportion of black and Hispanic residents. Although non-driving-related suspensions are also concentrated in communities with better access to public transportation and nearby jobs, additional work is needed to determine what effect this has for the social and economic well-being of suspended drivers.

Dataset Information

Geographic scale matters in detecting the relationship between neighbourhood food environments and obesity risk: an analysis of driver license records in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Objectives

Design

Setting

Participants

Analysis

Outcome

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Geographic scale matters in detecting the relationship between neighbourhood food environments and obesity risk: an analysis of driver license records in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Similar Datasets

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