Christine A Tisone1, Selina A Guerra2, Wenhua Lu3, E Lisako J McKyer3, Marcia Ory4, Diane Dowdy4, Suojin Wang5, Jingang Miao5, Alexandra Evans6, Deanna M Hoelscher6. 1. Clinical Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. ctisone@hlkn.tamu.edu. 2. Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. 3. Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. 4. Health Promotion & Community Health Sciences, Health Science Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. 5. Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. 6. Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus, Austin, TX, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To identify differences in food-shopping environments of Texas WIC vendors using a culturally adapted instrument. METHODS: A survey tool was developed for measuring food availability, accessibility, and affordability in 111 WIC vendors in Texas. Two-tailed t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests were used for rural/urban and Texas-Mexico border/non-border area comparisons. RESULTS: Prices were higher in rural areas than in urban areas for 2 key foods, fruits (p = .024) and milk (p = .007); non-border vendors had overall better food availability than border vendors; non-border vendors had better accessibility for fruits (p = .007) than border vendors. CONCLUSION: In Texas, disparities in food-shopping environments are evident and can be assessed using a culturally adapted survey tool.
OBJECTIVE: To identify differences in food-shopping environments of Texas WIC vendors using a culturally adapted instrument. METHODS: A survey tool was developed for measuring food availability, accessibility, and affordability in 111 WIC vendors in Texas. Two-tailed t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests were used for rural/urban and Texas-Mexico border/non-border area comparisons. RESULTS: Prices were higher in rural areas than in urban areas for 2 key foods, fruits (p = .024) and milk (p = .007); non-border vendors had overall better food availability than border vendors; non-border vendors had better accessibility for fruits (p = .007) than border vendors. CONCLUSION: In Texas, disparities in food-shopping environments are evident and can be assessed using a culturally adapted survey tool.