Neighborhood socioeconomic status and fruit and vegetable intake among whites, blacks, and Mexican Americans in the United States

• Published in: The American journal of clinical nutrition 2008-06, Vol.87 (6), p.1883-1891
• Main Authors: Dubowitz, Tamara, Heron, Melonie, Bird, Chloe E, Lurie, Nicole, Finch, Brian K, Basurto-Dávila, Ricardo, Hale, Lauren, Escarce, José J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Biological and medical sciences; Black or African American; Black People; cardiovascular diseases; Chronic Disease - epidemiology; diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Energy Intake; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Female; food intake; Fruit; Fruits; fruits (food); Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Mexican Americans; Middle Aged; Neighborhoods; Nutrition; Obesity - complications; Obesity - epidemiology; Socioeconomic Factors; socioeconomic status; United States - epidemiology; Vegetables; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; White People; Whites
• ISSN: 0002-9165; 1938-3207; 1938-3207
• DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/87.6.1883

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic and racial-ethnic disparities in health status across the United States are large and persistent. Obesity rates are rising faster in black and Hispanic populations than in white populations, and they foreshadow even greater disparities in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in years to come. Factors that influence dietary intake of fruit and vegetables in these populations are only partly understood. OBJECTIVES: We examined associations between fruit and vegetable intake and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES), analyzed whether neighborhood SES explains racial differences in intake, and explored the extent to which neighborhood SES has differential effects by race-ethnicity of US adults. DESIGN: Using geocoded residential addresses from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we merged individual-level data with county and census tract-level US Census data. We estimated 3-level hierarchical models predicting fruit and vegetable intake with individual characteristics and an index of neighborhood SES as explanatory variables. RESULTS: Neighborhood SES was positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake: a 1-SD increase in the neighborhood SES index was associated with consumption of nearly 2 additional servings of fruit and vegetables per week. Neighborhood SES explained some of the black-white disparity in fruit and vegetable intake and was differentially associated with fruit and vegetable intake among whites, blacks, and Mexican Americans. CONCLUSIONS: The positive association of neighborhood SES with fruit and vegetable intake is one important pathway through which the social environment of neighborhoods affects population health and nutrition for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in the United States.