Who shops at their nearest grocery store? A cross-sectional exploration of disparities in geographic food access among a low-income, racially/ethnically diverse cohort in central Texas

Abstract

We examined whether Central Texans shop at their nearest supermarket, how far they travel for groceries, and explored differences by race/ethnicity, urbanicity, motivations for store selection, and other demographic characteristics. Using cross-sectional data and GIS, continuous network distances from participants’ homes to nearest and usual supermarkets were calculated and multivariate linear regression assessed differences. <19% shopped at their nearest supermarket. Regression models found that urbanicity played a large role in distance traveled to preferred supermarket, but other factors varied by race/ethnicity. Our findings demonstrate that racial/ethnic and urbanicity disparities in food access and multiple domains of food access need greater consideration.