88 Big Microdata Link Racial Disadvantage to Grocery Market Deprivation in U.S. Cities

Faculty Mentor: Timothy Collins (Environmental & Sustainability Studies, University of Utah)

Introduction

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2021) reports that >53 million Americans (>17% of the US population) live in food-deprived areas, where low- income populations lack access to grocery markets. The lack of food options in these areas negatively affects people’s diet and health, leading to higher obesity incidence and related comorbidities (Black et al., 2014; Lovasi et al., 2009). Disadvantaged racial/ethnic groups are overrepresented as residents of food-deprived areas in the US, which strongly influences the health disparities they experience (Cooksey Stowers et al., 2020; Lovasi et al., 2009). Prior studies of geographic disparities in food access have relied on publicly available data from the American Community Survey (ACS) that are aggregated. This limits our understanding about food access disparities at the individual level. We conduct the first national assessment of individual-level disparities in food-deprived area residence based on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and the intersection of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This examination is not possible with publicly available data.

Research Questions

1. Are Black people, Hispanic/Latinx people, transportation-disadvantaged individuals, food stamp recipients, and impoverished people overrepresented as residents of food-deprived areas?
2. Does the intersection of race/ethnicity (being Black or Hispanic/Latinx vs. White) and socioeconomic status (transportation disadvantage, food stamp receipt, poverty) influence residency in food-deprived areas?

Data and Methods

We pair restricted-access ACS microdata samples from 2015-2019 of the conterminous US urban population (n = 16,990,000) with geographic data on food-deprived areas (census tracts) from the US Department of Agriculture Food Access Research Atlas for 2019 with proximity to grocery markets defined at one-half mile. The analysis variables measure whether each individual lived a food-deprived area or not; whether they were non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or non-Hispanic White (individuals from other race/ethnicity groups were not examined); and whether they had access to vehicle or not, received food stamps or not, or were in poverty or not. To analyze the data, we ran descriptive statistics to quantify the (a) proportions of non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and non-Hispanic White people in food-deprived census tracts (research question 1); (b) proportions of people with vs. without vehicle access, receiving vs. not receiving food stamps, and in vs. not in poverty in food-deprived areas (research question 1); and (c) proportions of non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and non-Hispanic White people in food-deprived tracts by vehicle access status, food stamp status, and poverty status (research question 2).

Results

With respect to research question 1, we find that residents from racially disadvantaged and low socioeconomic status groups are dramatically overrepresented in food-deprived areas. Among the total population in our dataset, 27.7% live in food-deprived areas, yet 49.8% of non-Hispanic Black people and 40.1% of Hispanic/Latinx people (vs. 21.7% of non-Hispanic White people), 47.4% of people in poverty (vs. 25.1% not in poverty), 49.1% of food stamp recipients (vs. 24.5% of non-recipients), and 35.5% of people without access to car (vs. 27.3% with car access) reside in food-deprived areas.

In regard to research question 2, among low socioeconomic status groups, we find persistent residential overrepresentation in food-deprived areas based on disadvantaged racial/ethnic status. Among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/Latinx people without vehicle access, receiving food stamps, or in poverty, respectively, 52.1% (non-Hispanic Black) and 31.3% (Hispanic/Latinx), 61.5% and 50.3%, or 62.5% and 51.3% live in food-deprived areas. By comparison, 30.7%, 42.8%, or 40.6% of non-Hispanic White people without vehicle access, receiving food stamps, or in poverty, respectively, live in food-deprived areas.

Discussion

Results indicate that the overrepresentation of people from Black and Hispanic/Latinx racial/ethnic groups in food-deprived areas is not solely attributable to low socioeconomic status, e.g., poverty. Findings lend credence to the notion that disparities in grocery market access in US cities are structured by racial oppression, underscoring the need for policy interventions to incentivize opening grocery markets in racially marginalized, underserved areas. We know that access to grocery markets leads to better diets (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption) among racial/ethnic minority and low-income Americans (Rose & Richards, 2004; Zenk et al., 2005), yet no economic incentive exists for retailers to open grocery markets in food-deprived communities of color. The Healthy Food Access for All Americans Act (HFAAA) would provide tax credits for operating a new grocery market or renovating an existing market in a food-deprived area. Passing the HFAAA with additional incentives for opening markets in food-deprived communities of color in particular could reduce the disparities that our study reveals.

Acknowledgments

This research was performed at a Federal Statistical Research Data Center under FSRDC Project Number 2717 (CBDRB-FY23-P2717-R10866) with funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25ES031497. The Census Bureau has reviewed this data product to ensure appropriate access, use, and disclosure avoidance protection of the confidential source data used to produce it. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the views of the Census Bureau or National Institutes of Health. This work was supported by SPUR from the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Utah awarded to Justin Plascencia-Maciel.

References

Black, C., Moon, G., & Baird, J. (2014). Dietary inequalities: What is the evidence for the effect of the neighborhood food environment? Health & Place, 27, 229–242.

Cooksey Stowers, K., Jiang, Q., Atoloye, A., Lucan, S., & Gans, K. (2020). Racial differences in perceived food swamp and food desert exposure and disparities in self-reported dietary habits. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 7143.

Lovasi, G. S., Hutson, M. A., Guerra, M., & Neckerman, K. M. (2009). Built environments and obesity in disadvantaged populations. Epidemiologic Reviews 31(1), 7–20.

Rose, D., & Richards, R. (2004). Food store access and household fruit and vegetable use among participants in the U.S. Food Stamp Program. Public Health Nutrition, 7(8), 1081–1088.

US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2021). Food Access Research Atlas, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/

Zenk, S. N., Schulz, A. J., Hollis-Neely, T., Campbell, R. T., Holmes, N., Watkins, G., & Odoms-Young, A. M. (2005). Fruit and vegetable intake in African Americans: Income and store characteristics. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 29(1), 1–9.