Racial Disparities in Food Environments and Diet

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22. Racial/Ethnic Differences and Health Disparities Objective: The relationship between diet and disease is well established. The elderly population is the fastest growing sub population in the United States. The ability to prevent diet related acute and chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and cancer, is particularly important for this group of Americans. Unfortunately efforts to modify individuals' diets by education have been largely unsucessful. Derminants of food purchasing patterns suggest people's dietary choices are affected by their local environments. However the relationship between the local food environment and senior's diets has not been studied. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables by elderly residents of New York City. Other reseach suggests the elderly are particularly reliant on their local environment for goods and services due to increasing prevalence of disability and decreasing income. Therefore seniors may be a sensitive subpopulation at risk for poor dietary intake when living in a restricted food environment. Methods: A cross sectional study is proposed where eligible elderly participants will be selected from predominately white, predominately black, low and high weath neighborhoods. A sampling scheme has been developed to measure the joint effect of racial segregation and wealth on the location of places that sell fruits and vegetables. Participants will be interviewed over the phone regarding their (a) usual consumption of fruits and vegetables, (b) shopping patterns and (c) access to transportation. In addition, the location of places that sell food in these neighborhoods will be gained from regulatory agencies and food stores will be surveyed for the price and quality of fruits and vegetables sold. We will use a multi-level approach to our statistical analysis to investigate the assocation between the availabilty of fruits and vegetables and comsumption by residents. Conclusions: The results of this reseach will provide more effective intervention strategies for modifying dietary consumption as well as generate hypotheses for future research.