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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Junk-food geography
  • Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 11:41:46 -0600



Junk-food geography
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/11713617.htm
Posted on Mon, May. 23, 2005
By Susan FitzGerald Inquirer Staff Writer


By mapping places people live, work and go, researchers are gaining
insights
into all sorts of problems, including childhood obesity.


When obesity reseachers at the University of Pennsylvania were looking to
prevent obesity among schoolchildren, they turned to an unexpected group of
experts: mapmakers.

The university's Cartographic Modeling Laboratory got to work, drawing maps
of the neighborhoods around five Philadelphia elementary schools.

What resulted were not ordinary street maps. Rather, they were maps showing
"food opportunities."

Using handheld computers as they walked about, the mapmakers charted every
pizza shop, corner store, deli and vendor that beckoned to students as they
went to and from school.

"Are they walking by fried chicken and doughnut shops on the way to school,
and mom-and-pop stores that only sell chips and sodas, or are they walking
by fruit stands?" said Dennis Culhane, codirector of the Cartographic
Modeling Laboratory.

The lab is making maps with unusual details to answer a variety of
questions
about the effects of people's physical and social environments.

Drawing on data from many government and private sources, the lab creates
maps to explain how the space in which people live, move and work
influences
what happens to them.

"What we're doing is connecting people to the context in which they live,"
said Amy Hillier, the lab's research director.

Much of the research centers on public health issues, such as violence and
obesity. The lab's work already has helped the city decide where to put
homeless prevention programs, and it also spurred state funding to
encourage
more supermarkets in poor city neighborhoods.

Right now, the lab is working with researchers across Penn to answer
questions like these:

Are gun shootings more likely to happen in neighborhoods with more bars and
alcohol takeout stores?

Are people more likely to become sickened or die during heat waves in
certain types of housing?

How does neighborhood decay and crime affect people's ability to stay
active
and keep weight off?

Do billboards and their messages have an impact on the health of a
community?

Social scientists and public health researchers have long considered
demographic characteristics - age, sex, income and education - to help
explain individual behavior or a person's risk for disease.

But now sophisticated computer programs - geographic information systems,
or
GIS - allow researchers to pull together data on many factors and analyze
them spatially, by block, neighborhood or town.

"Theoretically, there's always been a sense that space matters," Culhane
said. But researchers are recognizing more and more that location is
important, he said.

The mapping lab's location is nothing dramatic. It comprises a collection
of
computers in a nondescript office on the Penn campus. The lab is a joint
venture of Penn's School of Social Work and School of Design, and is funded
by an annual budget of $700,000.

The staff seek out data from likely and unlikely places - real estate
records, hospital records, fire logs, licensing and inspection reports,
lead
poisoning data, school truancy reports, building permits, and utility
shut-off reports.

Charles Branas, a Penn epidemiologist studying gun violence, is comparing
Philadelphia gunshot victims to similar Philadelphians who were not shot
and
then looking at how their environments differ.

He is analyzing both the physical environments (number of boarded-up homes,
for instance) and social environments (prevalence of child abuse reports is
one measure) and is particularly interested in alcohol as a factor.

He and his research team will use state licensing records of liquor
establishments to create a spatial picture of alcohol density in the
neighborhoods.

"The big academic question we're getting at is what puts you at greater
risk
for getting shot, your personal consumption, or the surroundings you find
yourself?" Branas said.

He said the working theory is a high density of alcohol outlets creates a
risky environment.

The findings could be used to push for tighter zoning laws.

In the obesity study, researchers were already looking at the effectiveness
of school-based interventions, such as healthier lunches, when they decided
to take a broader view.

They weighed and measured fourth, fifth and sixth graders at 10 city
elementary schools and found that 40 percent were overweight or obese.

"Are there environmental characteristics surrounding these schools and
neighborhoods that would lead to a high prevalence of obesity in these
kids?" said Gary Foster, clinical director of Penn's Weight and Eating
Disorders Program.

The Cartographic Modeling Lab is now working with the obesity researchers
to
study the environment around five of the schools to see if there is a
correlation between weight problems and the availability of food as well as
the number of recreational sites, such as parks and rec centers.

One place they're studying is Southwark School, at Ninth and Mifflin
Streets
in South Philadelphia.

A map drawn by the cartographic lab shows three stars indicating
"recreational opportunities." There are 25 squares of various colors - all
"food opportunities" within a half-mile radius of the school.

Within a block of the school are a pizza shop selling cheese fries, a
hoagie
shop with jumbo 50-cent sodas, and a Chinese takeout with a big selection
of
candy and chips.

Researchers surveyed 600 students at Southwark and other schools. About
half
of them bought food on the way to school, spending on average $2 a day,
Hillier said. The pattern repeated on the way home.

There may be a healthy government-funded breakfast waiting at school, but
before many students get there, they eat bags of chips and cheese curls,
said Anna Jenkins, Southwark principal.

"We have so many kids who are obese," she said. "They are breathing heavy
on
the second flight of steps. I have a boy who is 265 pounds at 13. That's
sad. I told him he's a walking heart attack."

The Penn researchers surveyed each of the food outlets near the schools to
see what they sold. At Southwark, they also asked some students to use
handheld computers to show what routes they walk to school.

The mapping efforts aren't just an academic exercise. In another aspect of
the project, the Food Trust is working with some area businesses to stock
more healthful items.

Changing the food environment will not be easy.

Michele and Gene Burgese, who own Red's Hoagies across from Southwark, said
they are happy to stock more fruit but doubt it will sell.

"Kids are kids," Michele Burgese said. Echoed her husband: "I don't think
we
ever sold an apple or banana to a kid."

One recent afternoon when school let out early at Southwark, Antonio Sarun,
11, and his brother, Austin, 5, stopped at the 1928 Deli. They skipped the
fruit salads and left with four 25-cent bags of snacks.

Antonio said he and his brother were headed home to "eat it and watch TV."

Survey Questions

The survey by the Weight and Eating Disorders Program asked children to
base
their answers on what they usually do. Below are some of the questions
asked.

How do you get to school? (Walk, drive, SEPTA, school bus, bike, other.)

Do you eat something before you leave for school?

Do you buy anything to eat on the way to school?

How much do you spend on food on the way to school?

Do you eat breakfast at school?

Do you eat lunch at school?

Where do you go after school? (Home, friends' house, relative's house,
after-school program, extended program at school, other.)

SOURCE: Weight and Eating Disorders Program


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----
Contact staff writer Susan FitzGerald at 215-854-2780 or
sfitzgerald@phillynews.com.





  • [Livingontheland] Junk-food geography, Tradingpost, 05/23/2005

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