In response to the rising prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in
Canada and around the world, the food environment has been recognized as one important determinant of health status. In order to fill some existing knowledge gaps in Canadian food environment research to better understand factors that may lead to health disparities, as well as to develop healthy public policies in response, this study characterized food environments in restaurants for children (10-13 years) living in Saskatoon, and examined their associations with neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics. Specifically, using GIS-based techniques and a structured observation tool (NEMS-R), it examined community and consumer restaurant food environments by neighbourhoods categorized by distress level. The distribution of different restaurant types differs with respect to neighbourhood distress level. According to NEMS-R results, significant differences were found in the healthfulness of foods and beverages offered in restaurants by different categories. Restaurants within lower distress level neighbourhoods presented higher (more healthful) NEMS-R scores. However, the fast food environment for children was not significantly different according to their neighbourhood distress level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:ecommons.usask.ca:10388/ETD-2014-09-1732 |
| Date | 2014 September 1900 |
| Contributors | Engler-Stringer, Rachel |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, thesis |
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