Children's takeaway and fast-food intakes: associations with the neighbourhood food environment.

Objective: The present study aimed to examine associations between availability of outlets where takeaway or fast food could be purchased and consumption of takeaway or fast food among children.

Design: Cross-sectional. Parents completed a questionnaire regarding the frequency per week their child usually ate takeaway or fast foods. The availability of outlets where these foods could be purchased close to home and en route to school was determined with a Geographic Information System (presence of any outlets and density of outlets within 800 m from home and along the route to school, and distance from home to closest outlet).

Setting: Greater Melbourne and Geelong, Australia.

Subjects: Three hundred and fifty-three children aged 5-6 years and 463 children aged 10-12 years.

Results: Overall, 69.4% of children consumed takeaway or fast foods once weekly or more often. Only one measure of availability of outlets close to home was associated with consumption; each additional outlet within 800 m was associated with 3% lower odds of consuming takeaway or fast foods at least once weekly (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.95, 1.00). There were no associations between availability en route to school and the likelihood of consuming takeaway or fast food at least once weekly.

Conclusions: Access to outlets where takeaway or fast food could be purchased did not predict frequency of consumption of takeaway or fast food in the expected direction. Such relationships appear to be complex and may not be adequately captured by the measures of access included in the current study.