According to recent research, living in food deserts is linked to a shorter life expectancy in the US.
Researchers from the American Cancer Society place a high priority on efficient interventions to increase access to healthy food in order to enhance population health and diet quality.
According to Dr. Daniel Wiese, Senior Scientist for Cancer Disparity Research at the American Cancer Society and the study’s co-lead author,” These results provide further evidence that a healthy diet is important for living healthier and longer life.” ” Limited access to healthy food has been linked to negative health outcomes, such as obesity and diabetes, and is a potential contributor to poor diet.”
Researchers examined 67, 138 census tracts in the contiguous U.S. to collect the most recent information on life expectancy at birth for the study. from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 – 2015. The 2015 Food Research Atlas Index from the U.S. Department of Agriculture( USDA ) was used by researchers to calculate the distance-based geographic access to healthy food for each census tract as well as income / poverty levels. Low-income census tracts were defined as those with a median household income of less than 80 % of the state-wide / metropolitan area’s median income, such as 20 % or less. Low-access census tracts( both urban and rural ) were those in which, regardless of the availability of vehicles, 100 households lived more than half a mile from the closest supermarket without having access to one. Alternatively, 500 households, or 33 % of people, lived less than 20 miles. Then, the researchers identified four census tract categories:( 1 ) high income and high healthy food accessibility( high – income / high access );( 2 ) high-income and low access to healthy foods;( 3 ) low income in relation to high health food access( low income / high access ); and( 4 ) low affluence compared to low health access.
The Southeast and West, where an excessive number of tracts with lower life expectancy were also located, were the two regions with the highest concentration of census tract with low healthy food accessibility. According to the study’s findings, shorter life expectancy was found in low-income census tracts when compared to those with a similar level of healthy food accessibility, as well as in lower – access tract comparing to that level. This finding was consistent with both income and the availability of nutritious food at birth. The average life expectancy at birth was higher in census tracts with high incomes and high accesses( 80.2 years ), low income / high access( 77.2 ), and low-income / low-access( 75.5 %), respectively. In models adjusted for all sociodemographic covariates, life expectancy at birth was lowest in low-income / low-access census tracts( 2.29 years, 95 %), followed by low, income, and high, access( 0.33 and 95 percent ), respectively.
Effective interventions to increase access to healthy food may help to enhance population health and diet quality. According to Dr. Farhad Islami, Senior Scientific Director of Cancer Disparity Research at the American Cancer Society and senior author of the study, these initiatives may include establishing new healthy food retailers( e.g., farmers markets, grocery stores, bodegas, and mobile retailers ), as well as improving the quality, diversity, or quantity of healthier foods at current stores. ” People with limited income may also benefit from supporting public transportation systems that may improve geographic access to stores offering healthy foods.”
More study is required, according to the authors, to investigate the relationship between personal income and access to healthy foods and life expectancy. They also look at some other variables that may have an impact on food accessibility, such as shopping habits( e.g., the willingness to travel farther to buy healthful foods ) and the availability of dependable and effective public transportation.
Jason Massey, Marjorie McCullough, and Dr. Ahmedin Jemal are additional ACS authors who are working on this study.
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