ResearchPerspectives in PracticeAvailability of More Healthful Food Alternatives in Traditional, Convenience, and Nontraditional Types of Food Stores in Two Rural Texas Counties
Section snippets
Study Counties
The two counties selected for this study were the same two counties that community partners identified as sites for the first two community health resource centers in rural Brazos Valley. All traditional (supermarkets and grocery stores), convenience (convenience stores and food marts), and nontraditional (dollar stores and mass merchandisers) food stores were identified using ground truthing in the Brazos Valley Food Environment Project (18). Retail formats were defined using a modification of
Results
The study area consisted of two nonadjacent counties; one county with 1,725 km2 in land area and a population of 17,238, and the other with 1,218 km2 and 13,167 residents. The largest town in each county had a population of <3,600 residents. One county had two supermarkets (0.3 per 259 km2 and 1.16 per 10,000 residents), three grocery stores (0.45 and 1.74), 19 convenience stores (2.85 and 11.04), one mass merchandiser (0.15 and 0.58), and two dollar stores (0.3 and 1.16). The other county had
Discussion
This study extends our understanding of the availability of more healthful food choices in food stores and is apparently the first study, to our knowledge, that describes the availability of more healthful and less healthful choices from the MyPyramid food groups (41) across traditional, convenience, and nontraditional food stores in a rural area. Our analyses revealed a greater availability of more healthful food choices across food groups was offered by traditional food outlets (supermarkets
Conclusions
There is potential for intervention at multiple levels of the social ecology (56). Initiation of public policies that successfully improve the economic viability of rural communities is needed to increase the availability of healthful food products and to supply an adequate diet. Further development of policies will ensure adequate retail provision of foods to those who are disadvantaged (57). Collaborations among local food store owners, public and nonprofit agencies, and transportation
B. Bustillos is a captain in the US Army; at the time of the study, she was a graduate researcher, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station
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Cited by (0)
B. Bustillos is a captain in the US Army; at the time of the study, she was a graduate researcher, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station
J. R. Sharkey is an associate professor and director of the Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station
J. Anding is an associate professor and extension program leader, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Texas A&M University, College Station
A. McIntosh is a professor, Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station