Adult Obesity and Food Stores’ Density – Evidence from State-Level Panel Data

The association between types of food access and rising adult obesity rates is increasingly recognized, as a complement to the effects of declining physical activity. Previous studies have examined the effects on obesity of only a limited set of store types, such as grocery stores, fast food restaurants and big-box retailers, and they have ignored that certain behavioral factors, such as could play a role in the relationship between food access and obesity. This analysis includes a comprehensive array of food-providing establishments, including limited- and full-service restaurants controlling for fruit-and-vegetables (F&V) consumption (lagged temporally) using a panel data set for the continental U.S. states covering the period 1997-2005. The results show clearly that the density of food stores across the states matters. In addition, important and subtle nuances emerge in the relationships among obesity, F&V consumption and the different types of stores when we allow for interaction effects.