An Economic Analysis of Community-level Fast Food Prices and Individual-level Fast Food Intake: a Longitudinal Study

Overview

Journal Health Place

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Public Health

Date 2011 Aug 20

PMID 21852178

Citations 21

Authors

Penny Gordon-Larsen

David K Guilkey

Barry M Popkin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: While dietary intake is shaped by cost, there is minimal research on the association between community-level food prices and dietary intake.

Methods: We used nationally representative, longitudinal data to examine how community-level food price variation was associated with individual-level fast food intake by race/ethnicity and income across waves II (1996) and III (2001-2002) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=11,088) from 158 baseline and 363 follow-up US counties.

Results: Negative binomial regression models predicting the number of fast food meals per week show strong relationships between fast food consumption and prices of fast food and soda that varied by gender and race/ethnicity. We found relatively stronger association between food prices and fast food intake for males and relatively greater price sensitivity for soda versus burgers. In the group with strongest associations (black males), a 20% increase in the price of soda was associated with a decrease of 0.25 visits to a fast food restaurant per week.

Conclusions: Economic incentives may be an effective mechanism to address fast food intake in an age group at high risk for obesity.

Citing Articles

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Associations of early adulthood life transitions with changes in fast food intake: a latent trajectory analysis.

Winpenny E, Winkler M, Stochl J, van Sluijs E, Larson N, Neumark-Sztainer D Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2020; 17(1):130.

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Improvements in the nutritional quality of US young adults based on food sources and socioeconomic status between 1989-1991 and 2011-2014.

Patetta M, Pedraza L, Popkin B Nutr J. 2019; 18(1):32.

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Change in diet in the period from adolescence to early adulthood: a systematic scoping review of longitudinal studies.

Winpenny E, Penney T, Corder K, White M, van Sluijs E Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2017; 14(1):60.

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The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Afshin A, Penalvo J, Del Gobbo L, Silva J, Michaelson M, Oflaherty M PLoS One. 2017; 12(3):e0172277.

PMID: 28249003 PMC: 5332034. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172277.

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