Density of (1) Supermarkets, (2) Fast food restaurants, and (3) Convenience stores

Measure Definition:

There are multiple ways to measure accessibility of food outlets including proximity, availability, and density. Thus, multiple measures are possible. However, because not all studies can derive distance measures (i.e., they only have the administrative unit where study participants live), the prioritized measure is food outlet density per 10,000 residents. But options include distance (Euclidean or straight-line or Street network) to the nearest food outlet or nearest X number of food outlets; Count of the number of food outlets within a certain distance (e.g., one mile or three miles); Count of the number of food outlets per 10,000 people in an administrative unit or distance (e.g., number of supermarkets per 10,000 people); and Count of the number of food outlets per land area (e.g., number of supermarkets per square mile). Measures that take into account travel time are also possible. Food outlet accessibility can be measured based on where you live and where you work. Each food outlet type should be measured separately.

Construct:

Built Environment

Construct Definition (and Source):

The man-made physical elements of the environment (e.g., homes, buildings, streets, open spaces, and infrastructure). (MeSH)

Selected References

Citation PubMed ID

Apparicio, P., Abdelmajid, M., Riva, M., & Shearmur, R. (2008). Comparing alternative approaches to measuring the geographical accessibility of urban health services: Distance types and aggregation-error issues. International journal of health geographics, 7, 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-7-7