Association between fast food purchasing and the local food environment

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: In this study, an instrument was created to measure the healthy and unhealthy characteristics of food environments and investigate associations between the whole of the food environment and fast food consumption. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: In consultation with other academic researchers in this field, food stores were categorised to either healthy or unhealthy and weighted (between +10 and -10) by their likely contribution to healthy/unhealthy eating practices. A healthy and unhealthy food environment score (FES) was created using these weightings. Using a cross-sectional study design, multilevel multinomial regression was used to estimate the effects of the whole food environment on th..