Neighborhood Deprivation, Neighborhood Acculturation, and the Retail Food Environment in a US–Mexico Border Urban Area

Abstract

Retail food environments, which can be characterized by the availability of supermarkets and other food stores, provide an important context for dietary choices. Retail food environments in border metropolitan areas may not exhibit the same patterns of those observed in other areas and may influence dietary acculturation patterns. The availability of different types of food stores within a geographic information system (GIS) to test whether neighborhood deprivation and neighborhood acculturation were correlated with food store availability. After controlling for population density and neighborhood acculturation, high levels of neighborhood deprivation were associated with having 86% fewer chain supermarkets. In contrast, neighborhood acculturation was a more influential determinant in grocery and specialty store availability. Future research should examine the role of border retail food environments in shaping dietary acculturation patterns.

Keywords:

• food environment
• neighborhood deprivation
• neighborhood acculturation
• supermarkets