245172 Associations of Built Food Environment with Dietary Intake among Youth with Diabetes

Monday, October 31, 2011: 10:35 AM

Archana Lamichhane, PhD , Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC
Beth Mayer-Davis, PhD , University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Robin Puett , Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Matteo Bottai, ScD , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Dwayne Porter, PhD , Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Angela Liese, PhD , Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Background: Children and youth with diabetes have poor dietary behavior despite the higher likelihood of various cardiovascular disease risk factors. Hence, it is crucial to understand factors influencing children's consumption.

Objective: To evaluate the associations of supermarket and fast food outlet accessibility and availability with dietary intake among youth with diabetes.

Research Design and Methods: Information on residential location and dietary intake for 359 youth with diabetes aged 10 years and above was obtained from the Carolina site of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study. Supermarket and fast food outlet data was obtained from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and InfoUSA and was used to construct accessibility and availability measures.

Results: Increased availability and accessibility of supermarkets was significantly associated with higher Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) adherence score, even after adjusting for individual-level correlates and urbanicity. For instance, each additional supermarket/square mile was significantly associated with a higher DASH score of 5.25 (p< 0.05). Associations of supermarket accessibility and availability with DASH score strengthened when controlled for fast food accessibility or availability. Fast food accessibility, however, was significantly associated with only specific food components (such as meat, sweets and low-fat dairy intake).

Conclusions: Accessibility and availability of supermarkets may be significantly associated with the overall dietary intake, and fast food outlet may be associated rather with specific food components. Efforts to promote environments conducive to healthy eating may significantly improve the overall dietary intake and reduce diet-related health complications among youth with diabetes.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Epidemiology
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this presentation, the participants will be able to: 1. Recognize poor dietary intake among youth with diabetes. 2. Understand five different ways of measuring accessibility and availability of built food environments. 3. Evaluate the influence of built food environment on dietary intake among youth with diabetes.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: This research is part of my dissertation work while at University of South Carolina.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Obesity and Nutrition
See more of: Epidemiology