Background: The increasing number of convenience and small food stores may be contributing to the rising childhood obesity rate in the United States; however, the literature assessing food environments surrounding elementary schools in this country is relatively limited. This study determines (a) whether the food environments around public elementary schools is of significantly lower quality than those of other areas in the United States and (b) how the quality of the school food environment is associated with local socio-economic factors and geographical components.

Methods: Data for 52,375 public elementary schools as well as 96,652 convenience stores, 65,044 small food stores, and 44,383 supermarkets/grocery stores were obtained from the National Center of Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A two-sample t test was applied to compare the food environment within 0.5-mile buffer around schools and that in the remaining area of each county. A binomial regression model was constructed to examine the impact of socio-economic and geographical factors on unequal food environments.

Results: The food environment within 0.5 mile around schools is of significantly poorer quality than that of the rest of the test area (p < .001). The quality of the food environment around schools is highly associated with such socio-economic factors as median household income (OR = 1.000, p < .01) and percentage of minority population (OR = 0.989, p < .01). Quality also varies geographically, with poorer quality in the Midwest (OR = 0.722, p < .05) and northeast (OR = 0.328, p < .001) than in the south and west and lower quality in metro counties (OR = 0.627, p < .01) than in rural and nonmetro counties.

Conclusion: Our findings stress the importance of awareness for improving food retail environments around elementary schools for the benefit of our children.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cch.12671DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

elementary schools
16
public elementary
12
food environment
12
food
9
environments public
8
small food
8
food stores
8
united states
8
food environments
8
schools
6

Similar Publications

The consequences of human activity on climate change are increasingly apparent. For example, they are causing ecological degradation and affecting human and animal health. Rightly so, it is considered as the most important challenge of this century.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Financial crisis and its association with parental stress and children's mental health in Lebanon.

BMC Public Health

January 2025

Institut National de Santé Publique, d'Épidémiologie Clinique et de Toxicologie-Liban (INSPECT-LB), Beirut, Lebanon.

Background: Lebanon has experienced a series of devastating crises that continue to have significant adverse effects on the mental health of parents and their children, especially those who are unemployed, burdened with debt or financial difficulties, and have pre-existing mental health conditions. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the effect of financial insecurities on parents in Lebanon amid the multiple crises, and the impact of parents' mental health on their children's emotional and behavioral wellbeing.

Methods: A cross-sectional study including 589 parents in Lebanon was performed using convenience sampling of parents of any gender with children aged 4 to 18 from the five Lebanese governorates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Streptococcus pyogenes remains one of the top ten causes of mortality from infectious diseases. Children in low-income nations have high carrier rates of Streptococcus pyogenes, which can serve as a source of infections, including simple superficial infections that may lead to invasive and post-streptococcal diseases, particularly among schoolchildren. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of Streptococcus pyogenes, associated factors, and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles among urban and rural public schoolchildren in Gondar City, Northwest Ethiopia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intimate partner violence among transgender people in Brazil: a cross-sectional study, 2015-2021.

Epidemiol Serv Saude

January 2025

Universidade Federal de Goiás, Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saúde Pública, Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Goiânia, GO, Brasil.

Objective: To identify social vulnerability profiles of transgender people who have experienced intimate partner violence in Brazil and to assess the association with recurrent violence and referrals to support services.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of reported cases of violence against transgender people in Brazil (2015-2021) utilizing data from SINAN/DATASUS. Sociodemographic profiles were defined using two-step cluster analysis and associations estimated by means of binary logistic regression, with odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Supporting Transition Resilience Of Newcomer Groups (STRONG; Hoover et al., 2019) program was developed to support mental health among newcomer refugee and immigrant students by (1) promoting positive adjustment during resettlement through a trauma-informed, strengths-based approach, contextualized to meet the needs of refugee and immigrant youth; and (2) improving access to services through school-based programming. The purpose of this study was to examine the acceptability and effectiveness of STRONG on the mental health and resilience of refugee and immigrant students using a group randomized waitlist control design.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!