Neighborhood deprivation and availability of culturally specific African-American and Latino fruits and vegetables in five small central Illinois cities

Abstract

Introduction: Although individual-level dietary behavior among racial/ethnic minority groups in the US is influenced by cultural food prefer-ences and socioeconomic position, few studies of the food store environment have simultane-ously examined both factors. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the availability of culturally specific fruits and veg-etables for African Americans and Latinos by levels of neighborhood deprivation. The 5 small central Illinois cities selected for the study have exhibited increasing numbers of both racial/ ethnic groups in the last decade. Methods: A validated audit tool was used to survey 118 food stores in 2008. Census 2000 block group data was used to create a neighborhood deprivation index (categorized as low, medium, and high) based on socioeconomic characteristics using principal component analysis. Statistical analy-ses were performed in SPSS version 17.0 to de-termine whether the availability of culturally specific fruits and vegetables (n = 31) varied by neighborhood levels of deprivation and store type. Results: Fewer than 50% of neighborhoods carried culturally specific fruits and vegetables, with the lowest availability found in low depriva-tion neighborhoods (p < 0.05). Culturally specific fruits and vegetables were most often found in neighborhoods with medium levels of depriva-tion, and in grocery stores (p < 0.05). Latino fruits and vegetables were less likely to be found across neighborhoods or in stores, compared to African-American fruits and vegetables. Con-clusions: The limited availability of culturally specific fruits and vegetables for African Ameri-cans and Latinos highlights potential environ-mental challenges with adherence to daily die-tary guidelines for fruit and vegetable consump-tion in these groups.