The measurement of food security at the community level: Geographic information systems and participatory ethnographic methods.

摘要

Food security is defined as “access by all people at all times to enough food to sustain an active, healthy life”. While this definition includes both individuals and their socioeconomic environments, and dietary quality and adequacy, little research has focused on the food security of the environment outside of households. We hypothesized that, if we measured the accessibility of food, as the definition dictates, we would fund that racial and economic disparities seen in the prevalence of household food security demonstrated at the community level. Using participatory action research methods, we explored what the important food security issues are and what actions might be important to improving food security in partnership with residents of predominantly Hispanic communities in Durham, NC. One of the recurrent themes in this study was the accessibility of fast food restaurants in their neighborhoods, and its effect on their dietary quality. This study also measures food accessibility in minority neighborhoods using Geographic Information Systems and spatial statistics. We found that fast food restaurants are significantly more accessible in predominantly minority census blocks in Durham County, but the effect is attenuated by the strong negative effect of affluence. The results of this study imply that racial disparities in food security may be related to socioeconomic factors like food accessibility, race and income inequality.