Supermarket access and childhood bodyweight: Evidence from store openings and closings

Di Zeng; Michael R. Thomsen; Rodolfo M. Nayga; Judy L. Bennett

doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2019.01.004

Supermarket access and childhood bodyweight: Evidence from store openings and closings

Di Zeng, Michael R. Thomsen, Rodolfo M. Nayga, Judy L. Bennett

Department of Food and Resource Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Retail food environment is increasingly considered in relation to obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods in the United States, on the bodyweight of children. Empirical analysis uses individual-level panel data covering health screenings of public schoolchildren from Arkansas with annual georeferenced business lists, and utilizes the variations of supermarket openings and closings. There is little overall impact in either case. However, supermarket openings are found to reduce the BMI z-scores of low-income children by 0.090 to 0.096 standard deviations. Such impact remains in a variety of robustness exercises. Therefore, improvement in healthy food access could at least help reduce childhood obesity rates among certain population groups.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	78-88
Number of pages	11
Journal	Economics and Human Biology
Volume	33
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.01.004
Publication status	Published - 2019 May

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-68001-30014 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the program title “Childhood Obesity Prevention: Integrated Research, Education, and Extension to Prevent Childhood Obesity”, program code A2101. The authors thank three anonymous for their helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

BMI
Child
Closing
Opening
Supermarket

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.ehb.2019.01.004

Cite this

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title = "Supermarket access and childhood bodyweight: Evidence from store openings and closings",

abstract = "Retail food environment is increasingly considered in relation to obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods in the United States, on the bodyweight of children. Empirical analysis uses individual-level panel data covering health screenings of public schoolchildren from Arkansas with annual georeferenced business lists, and utilizes the variations of supermarket openings and closings. There is little overall impact in either case. However, supermarket openings are found to reduce the BMI z-scores of low-income children by 0.090 to 0.096 standard deviations. Such impact remains in a variety of robustness exercises. Therefore, improvement in healthy food access could at least help reduce childhood obesity rates among certain population groups.",

keywords = "BMI, Child, Closing, Opening, Supermarket",

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note = "Funding Information: This project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-68001-30014 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the program title “Childhood Obesity Prevention: Integrated Research, Education, and Extension to Prevent Childhood Obesity”, program code A2101. The authors thank three anonymous for their helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2019",

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language = "English",

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T2 - Evidence from store openings and closings

AU - Zeng, Di

AU - Thomsen, Michael R.

AU - Nayga, Rodolfo M.

AU - Bennett, Judy L.

N1 - Funding Information: This project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-68001-30014 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the program title “Childhood Obesity Prevention: Integrated Research, Education, and Extension to Prevent Childhood Obesity”, program code A2101. The authors thank three anonymous for their helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2019/5

Y1 - 2019/5

N2 - Retail food environment is increasingly considered in relation to obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods in the United States, on the bodyweight of children. Empirical analysis uses individual-level panel data covering health screenings of public schoolchildren from Arkansas with annual georeferenced business lists, and utilizes the variations of supermarket openings and closings. There is little overall impact in either case. However, supermarket openings are found to reduce the BMI z-scores of low-income children by 0.090 to 0.096 standard deviations. Such impact remains in a variety of robustness exercises. Therefore, improvement in healthy food access could at least help reduce childhood obesity rates among certain population groups.

AB - Retail food environment is increasingly considered in relation to obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods in the United States, on the bodyweight of children. Empirical analysis uses individual-level panel data covering health screenings of public schoolchildren from Arkansas with annual georeferenced business lists, and utilizes the variations of supermarket openings and closings. There is little overall impact in either case. However, supermarket openings are found to reduce the BMI z-scores of low-income children by 0.090 to 0.096 standard deviations. Such impact remains in a variety of robustness exercises. Therefore, improvement in healthy food access could at least help reduce childhood obesity rates among certain population groups.

KW - BMI

KW - Child

KW - Closing

KW - Opening

KW - Supermarket

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SN - 1570-677X

VL - 33

SP - 78

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JO - Economics and Human Biology

JF - Economics and Human Biology

ER -

Supermarket access and childhood bodyweight: Evidence from store openings and closings

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Cite this