Studying spatial associations between the density of schools and the density of fast food outlets

The Foundation's program, Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity, was designed to support investigator-initiated research to identify and assess environmental and policy influences with the greatest potential to improve healthy eating and weight patterns among the nation's children. This project aims to study inequality in New York City's food environment, and more specifically, the distribution of fast food restaurants. Specifically, this project will study spatial associations between school density and fast food density, investigate environmental determinants of fast food density, and explore the circumstances in which fast food restaurateurs open and operate their businesses. Particular emphasis will be on low-income and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods, which have high rates of obesity. This study focuses on children in grades K through 12, in an urban setting with a large number of racial/ethnic minority and low socioeconomic status groups.