Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113796

Tamara Dubowitz, MSc, SM¹, Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD², Judy A. Salkeld, MS³, S.V. Subramanian, PhD², and Karen E. Peterson, ScD, RD⁴. (1) Department of Maternal and Child Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue 7th floor, Boston, MA 02115, 617 432 1080, tdubowitz@cmh.pitt.edu, (2) School of Public Health, Dept of Society, Human Development & Health, Harvard University, Kresge Building, 7th Floor, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, (3) Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Prevention Research Center, 677 Huntington Avenue 7th floor, Boston, MA 02115, (4) Departments of Nutrition and of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Prevention Research Center, 677 Huntington Avenue, III-617, Boston, MA 02115

We investigated how food security, or physical and economic access to food, from both ‘individual' and ‘community' perspectives, shaped food purchasing and preparation among low-income postpartum women while considering influences of lifecourse, immigration status and acculturation, and neighborhood of residence. Our research consisted of qualitative methodology (focus groups) with low-income women who had given birth within the past year. A total of forty-four immigrant and native-born women were recruited from two metropolitan areas in Massachusetts based on 1) neighborhood of residence and 2) primary language spoken. We analyzed notes and verbatim transcripts, summarized recurring responses and identified new themes in the discussions. Three general themes emerged: the immigrant experience, the social context of food purchasing, and food preparation within daily life activity. Overall, scarcity of food and physical access to food purchasing points did not appear to impede food acquisition. Instead, women in the focus groups described influences which included 1) limited time for family, cooking and food purchasing; and 2) obstacles such as transportation and childcare that influenced food purchasing, preparation and consequently diet. Our research found differing attitudes toward food purchasing and preparation between immigrant and native-born women and between women who live in Boston and Western Massachusetts. This research illustrates ‘hidden' constraints that need to be captured in measuring economic and physical access and availability of food. Food policy and programs that seek to address food security and improve diet quality would benefit from considering the social context of food preparation and purchasing and their residential environments.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the research and policy links between 'household' and 'community' food security
• Discuss current measures of food security and implications for food policy and programs in the United States
• Identify research and policy areas regarding food security that are underexplored

Keywords: Food Security, Immigrant Women

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.