Worcester County Lacks Proper Healthy Food Options, Study Says
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
“Access to Healthy Food Stores Modifies Effect of a Dietary Intervention” – conducted by UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health – is a study that looks to understand the relationship between supportive neighborhood environments and individual efforts to combat obesity.
“Community health programs should be evidence based, but many studies have showed conflicting associations between the distance to grocery stores and lower or higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes,” said principal investigator Wenjun Li, PhD, associate professor of medicine and director of the Health Statistics and Geography Lab in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine at UMMS and senior author of the study. “Our study is different. It looks at whether neighborhood environment becomes a limiting factor when a person wants to improve their diet. If you live far away from a grocery store, and you are trying to change your diet, will that affect you or not? To our knowledge, this is the first study to look at that.”
The study was conducted in Worcester County with 240 obese adults with metabolic syndrome who participated in a randomized clinical trial comparing two dietary interventions, the American Heart Association Dietary Guidelines or an exclusive focus on increasing fiber intake.
Improve the Environment, Improve Healthy Living
Results from this first-of-its-kind study show that not living close to healthy foods can deter even the most motivated dieters from improving their diet, which suggests that easy access to healthy food is just as important as personal motivation or any other factor regarding dieting.
Overall, the study showed that living closer to healthier options produced healthier eating habits among dieters. According to the DPH, this is precisely why programs like Mass in Motion – a statewide program devoted to promoting opportunities for healthy eating and active living – exist for residents of the Commonwealth.
One Factor, But an Important One
With this study as a stepping stone, Li and the DPH hope that further investigations into this concept will be explored so that public policy can be effected positively to address the problem with obesity in Massachusetts.
Li hopes that this study and following study can change public policy for the better; for example, communities with limited access to healthy food stores could provide public land and tax incentives to attract business owners.
“Changing the environment alone cannot produce results. However, efforts to try to change a person will be very limited without improving the environment,” Li concluded. “This is why both aspects should be pursued at the same time with coordinated efforts.”
Related Slideshow: New England’s Healthiest States
The United Health Foundation recently released its 2013 annual reoprt: America's Health Rankings, which provides a comparative state by state analysis of several health measures to provide a comprehensive perspective of our nation's health issues. See how the New England states rank in the slides below.
Definitions
All Outcomes Rank: Outcomes represent what has already occurred, either through death, disease or missed days due to illness. In America's Health Rankings, outcomes include prevalence of diabetes, number of poor mental or physical health days in last 30 days, health disparity, infant mortality rate, cardiovascular death rate, cancer death rate and premature death. Outcomes account for 25% of the final ranking.
Determinants Rank: Determinants represent those actions that can affect the future health of the population. For clarity, determinants are divided into four groups: Behaviors, Community and Environment, Public and Health Policies, and Clinical Care. These four groups of measures influence the health outcomes of the population in a state, and improving these inputs will improve outcomes over time. Most measures are actually a combination of activities in all four groups.
Diabetes Rank: Based on percent of adults who responded yes to the question "Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?" Does not include pre-diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy.
Smoking Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are current smokers (self-report smoking at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and currently smoke).
Obesity Rank: Based on percentage of adults who are obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher.
Source: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/
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