Supermarket access, transport mode and BMI: The potential for urban design and planning policy across socio-economic areas

Abstract

Objective To investigate dietary intake, BMI and supermarket access at varying geographic scales and transport modes across areas of socio-economic disadvantage, and to evaluate the implementation of an urban planning policy that provides guidance on spatial access to supermarkets. Design Cross-sectional study used generalised estimating equations to investigate associations between supermarket density and proximity, vegetable and fruit intake and BMI at five geographic scales representing distances people travel to purchase food by varying transport modes. A stratified analysis by area-level disadvantage was conducted to detect optimal distances to supermarkets across socio-economic areas. ..