Developing an index to estimate the association between the food environment and CVD mortality rates

Christopher Ly; Michael Essman; Catherine Zimmer; Shu Wen Ng

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102469

Developing an index to estimate the association between the food environment and CVD mortality rates

Health Place. 2020 Nov:66:102469. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102469. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Authors

Christopher Ly¹, Michael Essman¹, Catherine Zimmer², Shu Wen Ng³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7400, USA.
² Department of Sociology, Howard W. Odum Institute for Social Science, University of North Carolina, 208 Raleigh Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, USA.
³ Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7400, USA; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 123 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-8120, USA. Electronic address: shuwen@unc.edu.

Abstract

The food environment has been shown to influence dietary patterns, which ultimately affects nutrition-related diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Measures of food accessibility and socioeconomics were combined to develop the Food Environment Index (FEI), characterizing all U.S. counties between 2008 and 2016. Multi-level regression models showed that this index is significantly negatively associated with CVD death rates across the two time periods studied (2008-2010 and 2013-2016). The FEI may be a useful proxy for identifying differences in the food environment to inform future interventions.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Food environment; Mortality; U.S. counties.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cardiovascular Diseases*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diabetes Mellitus*
Fast Foods
Humans
Obesity / epidemiology

Grants and funding

P2C HD050924/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States