Assessing retail fruit and vegetable availability in urban and rural underserved communities.
BACKGROUND
Fruits and vegetables (F&Vs) are important parts of a healthy, balanced diet. Consumption of F&Vs is low among residents of socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. We investigated and compared retail F&V availability in urban and rural underserved communities in New York State.


METHODS
All food retail stores and farmers' markets (N = 263) in downtown Albany and in Columbia and Greene counties in New York State were visited and surveyed. Food stores were classified as F&V stores if they stocked more than the minimum varieties of fresh F&Vs defined by this study and as fruit-for-snack stores if they had ready-to-eat fruits only. Store density per 10,000 residents was calculated as a standardized measure of F&V availability. Adjustment weights were created to incorporate store size and business hours into the analysis.


RESULTS
The weight-adjusted density (per 10,000 residents) of F&V stores was 4.6 in Albany's minority neighborhood (reference category), 11.4 in Albany's racially mixed neighborhood (P = .01), 7.8 in Columbia and Greene counties' rural community (P = .10), and 9.8 in Columbia and Greene counties' small-town community (P = .02). Significant differences were not found in fruit-for-snack stores, which ranged from 2.0 per 10,000 in the mixed neighborhood to 3.4 per 10,000 in the rural community.


CONCLUSIONS
The urban minority neighborhood had the most barriers to fresh F&Vs in retail outlets, even when compared with the rural community. The low availability of retail F&Vs in the minority neighborhood was attributed to the lack of supermarkets and not the absolute lack of food stores. Public health intervention strategies to increase retail F&V availability in urban minority neighborhoods may aid in mitigating these disparities.
Hosler
Akiko S
AS
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University at Albany School of Public Health, One University Pl, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456, USA. ash05@health.state.ny.us
Rajulu
Deepa T
DT
Fredrick
Bonnie L
BL
Ronsani
Adrienne E
AE
D004032:Diet; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005638:Fruit / Q000600:supply & distribution; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D009518:New York; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D014675:Vegetables / Q000600:supply & distribution
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