Food and Alcohol Access in Neighborhoods of Varying Socioeconomic Status.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Shimotsu, Scott T., ; Jones-Webb, Rhonda J.; Nelson, Toben F.; MacLehose, Richard F.; Lytle, Leslie A.; Forster, Jean L.; Van Riper, David C.
- Source
- Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education; Dec2012, Vol. 56 Issue 3, p77-92, 16p, 2 Charts, 1 Map
- Subject
- Alcoholic beverages
Confidence intervals
Food
Poisson distribution
Residential patterns
Socioeconomic factors
Cross-sectional method
Data analysis software
Descriptive statistics
Minnesota
- Language
- ISSN
- 00901482
Our study examined the relationship between food and alcohol access by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) in a large urban county in Minnesota (n=298 census tracts). We hypothesized that the number of food stores would be negatively associated with the number of liquor stores in each census tract, and that the negative relationship between food and alcohol access would be stronger in poorer neighborhoods. Poisson regression was used to estimate effects. We found that the relationship between food and alcohol access differed by neighborhood SES, with higher income neighborhoods having more supermarkets and grocery stores and liquor stores (RR=1.47; p<.0001). Results suggest that food and alcohol access are interconnected and should be treated as related rather than distinct public health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]