Neighborhood racial composition, neighborhood wealth, and the surrounding food environment in Fulton County, GA

As an attempt to overcome this issue, this study quantifies the food environment in Fulton County, GA, by examining the balance of healthy and unhealthy food outlets, and then explored its association with key neighborhood characteristics using spatial logit models. Results show that neighborhoods with higher percentage of African-American residents were less likely to have a healthy food outlet balance. Additionally, the high mobility group (people with access to personal vehicles) was found to be associated with greater levels of disparity, compared to the low mobility group (people without access to personal vehicles). Income, on the other hand, was not a significant factor in predicting the food outlet balance in both the high mobility and the low mobility groups. These findings urge for future planning efforts to bring more food outlets, especially at a healthy balance, closer to neighborhoods with higher percentage of African-American residents.