Associations between availability and intake of commonly consumed and culturally specific fruits and vegetables in ethnically diverse urban neighborhoods

INTRODUCTION: Increasingly, researchers are emphasizing the importance of addressing neighborhood disparities in food access to achieve health equity. In the United States, African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected by diet-related chronic diseases. Yet, most studies have focused on foods commonly consumed in the general population, with few studies examining associations between the availability of foods preferred among different ethnic groups and individual intakes. The purpose of this community-based participatory research study was to examine associations between neighborhood availability of commonly consumed and culturally specific fruits and vegetables and individual intakes of these foods in an ethnically diverse adult sample in Detroit. METHODS: This study used data from the Healthy Environments Partnership's 2007-2008 community survey (n=463) and 2008-2009 food store audits (n=167) conducted in survey participants' residential neighborhoods. Dependent variables include: mean daily total, commonly consumed, and culturally specific (African-American, Latino) fruit and vegetable servings. Independent variables include: neighborhood availability of commonly consumed and culturally specific fruits and vegetables. Relationships are estimated using hierarchical linear modeling, adjusting for individual covariates. RESULTS: Availability of commonly consumed and culturally specific fruits and vegetables by neighborhood racial/ethnic composition will be presented, along with relationships between neighborhood availability and individual consumption. DISCUSSION: The results may reveal the importance of improving the availability of fruits and vegetables preferred among different ethnic groups in order to increase fruit and vegetable intake. We will discuss implications of our study for future research on food environments in ethnically diverse neighborhoods and for interventions and policies to promote health equity.