Seattle residents living in waterfront neighborhoods are more likely to have healthier diets than residents living near a bustling major interstate, a new study finds.
Home prices were the biggest factor in determining healthy diets of the Seattle residents, according to the study, published in January in Social Sciences and Medicine — Population Health. In general, residents of homes with low market value had less healthy diets than people living in homes with higher market value.
“Our dietary choices and health are determined to a very large extent by where we live,” said the study’s lead author, Adam Drewnowski, PhD, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Nutritional Sciences Program and Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington, in a news release.
The researchers compared information gathered from Seattle’s waterfront neighborhoods and communities along Interstate 5 and Aurora Avenue. They used data of 1,100 adults who participated in the Seattle Obesity Study, which examined eating habits of Seattle residents in different neighborhoods. The researchers mapped eating habits by city block to visualize citywide trends. Home property values were determined using records at the King County Department of Assessments.
Researchers also conducted a telephone survey of people in various neighborhoods to obtain more socio-demographic and dietary information. Among the questions asked was how often people ate leafy greens or a salad and how often they drank sugary soft drinks. Participants were scored using the Healthy Eating Index, which measures diet quality.
The responses showed that people in higher priced homes ate more salads and drank less soda than people in lower priced homes.
Moreover, women in the study averaged nearly four salads a week, much higher than what men consumed. And people over age 55 ate more salads than people below that age. Also, people with household incomes over $50,000 a year ate more salads, as did people with a college education when compared to people with a high school diploma or less.
Black and Hispanic residents consumed more soda than white residents, the study found.
“Salad and soda are the two hallmarks of a healthy versus an unhealthy diet,” Drewnowski said. “We now show that they tend to be consumed by different people with different education and incomes, living in different neighborhoods in Seattle.”
The researchers said the study is further evidence that health and place are intrinsically connected.
“Socio-economic status is at the confluence of health and place,” they wrote in the study. “Individual or household-level factors such as occupation, education, and incomes may determine not only where people live but also how healthy they are.”
The study’s method of modeling eating patterns and diet quality can help other social scientists target neighborhoods needing interventions, the researchers said.
For more information, visit https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827318301113?via%3Dihub.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association