title: Community food environment measures in the Alabama Black Belt: Implications for cancer risk reduction.
abstract: In-store measures were utilized to evaluate the availability of healthy food choices and nutrition/health promotion messages for cancer risk reduction in the selected Alabama Black Belt counties/cities. Sixty one retail food outlets (RFOs) were audited in 12 Alabama Black Belt cities. Store types included convenience stores (49.2%), restaurants (19.7%), fast food restaurants (16.4%), small supermarkets (8.2%), and large supermarket and farmers' markets (3.3 %), respectively. Although there were low numbers of farmers' markets/street stands and large supermarkets, these had significantly (p < 0.0001) higher health scores than the other store types. A few health promotion messages were highly visible or obscurely positioned in some RFOs. The Alabama Black Belt food environment had limited opportunities for healthy food choices.
authors: Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, United States.
authors: Rebecca
authors: R
authors: Gyawu
authors: Department of Agriculture, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, United States.
authors: Joseph E
authors: JE
authors: Quansah
authors: Department of Agriculture, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, United States.
authors: Souleymane
authors: S
authors: Fall
authors: Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, United States.
authors: Peter N
authors: PN
authors: Gichuhi
authors: Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, United States.
authors: Adelia C
authors: AC
authors: Bovell-Benjamin
keywords: Alabama Black Belt; Cancer prevention; Community food environment; Health promotion messages; Healthy food availability; In-store food survey; Retail food outlets