Opening new grocery stores in food deserts doesnt always offer the solutions researchers might expect.
What Is a Food Desert?
Theres no standard definition of food deserts.
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Income and resources (like transportation) can also keep people from being able to access healthy food options.
In response, his team developed strategies to use diet-tracking apps to study eating habits on a larger scale.
Specifically, the researchers were interested in studying how built environments affect different dietary and health markers.
While these findings are not particularly surprising, he added, they are important markers for policymakers.
How Social Determinants Impact Diet Quality
Experts call these environmental factors social determinants of health.
Examples of these factors include racism, safe housing, education quality, job opportunities, and pollution.
According to the study, in predominantly Black neighborhoods, higher income was not associated with healthier eating patterns.
Since this was a cross-sectional study, the researchers cannot explain the causality in their findings.
Diet quality is just one example where health disparities are seen.
A buildup of environmental stress resulting from social determinants of health is sometimes more influential than an individuals achievements.
The stress is especially damaging for people living in food-insecure environments, Wright said.
It takes a toll.
Its almost like a chronic disease in and of itself, she said.
The researchers hope that their study can help policymakers create meaningful public health solutions.
Diet is a complex issue, Hua said.
2019;8(4):e010694.
2022;13(1):267. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27522-y
Department of Health and Human Services.Social determinants of health.
