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Neighborhood Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in the Food and Alcohol Environment: Are There Differences by Commercial Data Sources?

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Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

This study examined neighborhood racial and socioeconomic disparities and the density of food and alcohol establishments. We also examined whether these disparities differed by data source.

Methods

This study included commercial data for 2003 and 2009 from InfoUSA and Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) in 416 census tracts in Allegheny County, PA. Food and alcohol establishment densities were calculated by using area and population data from the 2000 US census. Differences between InfoUSA and D&B of food and alcohol densities across neighborhood racial and socioeconomic characteristics were tested using correlations and two-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results

There were differences by data source in the association between neighborhood racial and socioeconomic characteristics and food/alcohol establishment density. There was a positive correlation between grocery store/supermarket density and percentage black, poverty, and percentage without a car among D&B data but not in InfoUSA. Alcohol outlet density (AOD) increased as neighborhood poverty increased for both data sources, but the mean difference in AOD between InfoUSA and D&B was highest among neighborhoods with 25–50 % poverty (Cohen’s d −0.49, p < 0.001) compared to neighborhoods with lower or higher poverty (2003 data). Mean grocery store density increased as percentage poverty increased, but only among D&B (2009 data).

Conclusions

Differences in commercial data in the location and numeration of food and alcohol establishments are associated with neighborhood racial and socioeconomic characteristics and may introduce biases concerning neighborhood food and alcohol environments, racial and socioeconomic disparities, and health.

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Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest

D. Mendez, K. Kim, C. Hardaway, and A. Fabio have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Responsible Conduct of Research

No animal or human studies were carried out by the authors for this manuscript. The Institutional Review Board for the University of Pittsburgh approved this study.

Funding Sources

This study was made possible in part by support from The Aetna Foundation (11–02359), Kellogg Health Scholars Program (WK Kellogg Foundation), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (T32 AA07453-26), and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U01-CE001630). The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agencies, its directors, officers, or staff.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA

    Dara D. Mendez & Anthony Fabio

  2. School of Education, Department of Psychology in Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Kevin H. Kim

  3. School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Cecily R. Hardaway

  4. Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Cecily R. Hardaway

Authors
  1. Dara D. Mendez
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  2. Kevin H. Kim
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  3. Cecily R. Hardaway
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  4. Anthony Fabio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dara D. Mendez.

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Mendez, D.D., Kim, K.H., Hardaway, C.R. et al. Neighborhood Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in the Food and Alcohol Environment: Are There Differences by Commercial Data Sources?. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 3, 108–116 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0120-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0120-0

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