Conceptualizing and comparing neighborhood and activity space measures for food environment research

Greater accessibility to geospatial technologies has led to a surge of spatialized public health research, much of which has focused on food environments. The purpose of this study was to analyze differing spatial measures of exposure to supermarkets and farmers׳ markets among women of reproductive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health & place 2014-11, Vol.30, p.215-225
Main Authors: Crawford, Thomas W., Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B., McGuirt, Jared T., Keyserling, Thomas C., Ammerman, Alice S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity space
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Environment Design
Environment. Living conditions
Female
Food environment
Food Supply
Geographic Information Systems
Geographical information systems
GIS
Health care
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Leisure Activities
Male
Medical sciences
Neighborhood
Neighbourhoods
North Carolina
Obesity
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Residence Characteristics
Social research
Supermarkets
Young Adult
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Summary:Greater accessibility to geospatial technologies has led to a surge of spatialized public health research, much of which has focused on food environments. The purpose of this study was to analyze differing spatial measures of exposure to supermarkets and farmers׳ markets among women of reproductive age in eastern North Carolina. Exposure measures were derived using participant-defined neighborhoods, investigator-defined road network neighborhoods, and activity spaces incorporating participants׳ time space behaviors. Results showed that mean area for participant-defined neighborhoods (0.04 sq. miles) was much smaller than 2.0 mile road network neighborhoods (3.11 sq. miles) and activity spaces (26.36 sq. miles), and that activity spaces provided the greatest market exposure. The traditional residential neighborhood concept may not be particularly relevant for all places. Time–space approaches capturing activity space may be more relevant, particularly if integrated with mixed methods strategies.
ISSN:1353-8292
1873-2054
DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.09.007