title: Food Environments and Obesity: Household Diet Expenditure Versus Food Deserts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the associations between obesity and multiple aspects of the food environments, at home and in the neighborhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our study included 38,650 individuals nested in 18,381 households located in 2104 US counties. Our novel home food environment measure, USDAScore, evaluated the adherence of a household's monthly expenditure shares of 24 aggregated food categories to the recommended values based on US Department of Agriculture food plans. The US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (2008), the detailed food purchase information in the IRi Consumer Panel scanner data (2008-2012), and its associated MedProfiler data set (2012) constituted the main sources for neighborhood-, household-, and individual-level data, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After we controlled for a number of confounders at the individual, household, and neighborhood levels, USDAScore was negatively linked with obesity status, and a census tract-level indicator of food desert status was positively associated with obesity status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neighborhood food environment factors, such as food desert status, were associated with obesity status even after we controlled for home food environment factors.
authors.affiliation: Danhong Chen is with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Edward C. Jaenicke is with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Richard J. Volpe is with the Agribusiness Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
authors.forename: Danhong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Danhong Chen is with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Edward C. Jaenicke is with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Richard J. Volpe is with the Agribusiness Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Jaenicke
authors.affiliation: Danhong Chen is with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Edward C. Jaenicke is with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Richard J. Volpe is with the Agribusiness Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Volpe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004032:Diet; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult