IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i10p2316-d177247.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You Can’t Find Healthy Food in the Bush: Poor Accessibility, Availability and Adequacy of Food in Rural Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Jill Whelan

    (School of Medicine, Global Obesity Centre, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

  • Lynne Millar

    (Australian Health Policy Collaboration, Victoria University, Melbourne 3000, Australia
    Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne and Western Health, St Albans 3021, Australia)

  • Colin Bell

    (School of Medicine, Global Obesity Centre, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

  • Cherie Russell

    (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

  • Felicity Grainger

    (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

  • Steven Allender

    (School of Health and Social Development, Global Obesity Centre, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

  • Penelope Love

    (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia
    Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia)

Abstract

In high-income countries, obesity disproportionately affects those from disadvantaged and rural areas. Poor diet is a modifiable risk factor for obesity and the food environment a primary driver of poor diet. In rural and disadvantaged communities, it is harder to access affordable and nutritious food, affecting both food insecurity and the health of rural residents. This paper aims to describe the food environment in a rural Australian community (approx. 7000 km 2 in size) to inform the development of community-relevant food supply interventions. We conducted a census audit of the food environment (ground truthing) of a local government area (LGA). We used the Nutrition Environment Measurement tools (NEMS-S and NEMS-R) to identify availability of a range of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the relative price of a healthy compared to a less healthy option of a similar food type (e.g., bread), the quality of fresh produce and any in-store nutrition promotion. Thirty-eight food retail outlets operated at the time of our study and all were included, 11 food stores (NEMS-S) and 27 food service outlets (NEMS-R). The mean NEMS-S score for all food stores was 21/54 points (39%) and mean NEMS-R score for all food service outlets was 3/23 points (13%); indicative of limited healthier options at relatively higher prices. It is difficult to buy healthy food beyond the supermarkets and one (of seven) cafés across the LGA. Residents demonstrate strong loyalty to local food outlets, providing scope to work with this existing infrastructure to positively impact poor diet and improve food security.

Suggested Citation

  • Jill Whelan & Lynne Millar & Colin Bell & Cherie Russell & Felicity Grainger & Steven Allender & Penelope Love, 2018. "You Can’t Find Healthy Food in the Bush: Poor Accessibility, Availability and Adequacy of Food in Rural Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2316-:d:177247
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2316/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2316/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cauchi, Daniel & Pliakas, Triantafyllos & Knai, Cécile, 2017. "Food environments in Malta: Associations with store size and area-level deprivation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 39-47.
    2. David Marshall & John Dawson & Laura Nisbet, 2018. "Food access in remote rural places: consumer accounts of food shopping," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 133-144, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katherine Kent & Laura Alston & Sandra Murray & Bonnie Honeychurch & Denis Visentin, 2022. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rural Food Security in High Income Countries: A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-29, March.
    2. Christina Mary Pollard & Sue Booth, 2019. "Addressing Food and Nutrition Security in Developed Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-5, July.
    3. Stephanie Louise Godrich & Flavio Macau & Katherine Kent & Johnny Lo & Amanda Devine, 2022. "Food Supply Impacts and Solutions Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Regional Australian Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Penelope Love & Jillian Whelan & Colin Bell & Jane McCracken, 2019. "Measuring Rural Food Environments for Local Action in Australia: A Systematic Critical Synthesis Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Giovanni Vecchio & Bryan Castillo & Rodrigo Villegas & Carolina Rojas Quezada & Stefan Steiniger & Juan Antonio Carrasco, 2023. "Elderly Walking Access to Street Markets in Chile: An Asset for Food Security in an Unequal Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Catherine Dumont & Lucy M. Butcher & Frances Foulkes-Taylor & Anna Bird & Andrea Begley, 2021. "Effectiveness of Foodbank Western Australia’s Food Sensations ® for Adults Food Literacy Program in Regional Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-12, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pedro Gerber Machado & Julia Tomei & Adam Hawkes & Celma de Oliveira Ribeiro, 2020. "A Simulator to Determine the Evolution of Disparities in Food Consumption between Socio-Economic Groups: A Brazilian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Paola A Hernández & Francesca Galli & Paolo Prosperi & Šūmane Sandra & Dominic Duckett & Henrik Eli Almaas, 2021. "Do small food businesses enable small farms to connect to regional food systems? Evidence from 9 European regions," Post-Print hal-03463710, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2316-:d:177247. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.