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Examining neighborhood-level hot and cold spots of food insecurity in relation to social vulnerability in Houston, Texas

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  • Ryan Ramphul
  • Linda Highfield
  • Shreela Sharma

Abstract

Food insecurity is prevalent and associated with poor health outcomes, but little is known about its geographical nature. The aim of this study is to utilize geospatial modeling of individual-level food insecurity screening data ascertained in health care settings to test for neighborhood hot and cold spots of food insecurity in a large metropolitan area, and then compare these hot spot neighborhoods to cold spot neighborhoods in terms of the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index. In this cross-sectional secondary data analysis, we geocoded the home addresses of 6,749 unique participants screened for food insecurity at health care locations participating in CMS’s Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model, as implemented in Houston, TX. Next, we created census-tract level incidence profiles of positive food insecurity screens per 1,000 people. We used Anselin’s Local Moran’s I statistic to test for statistically significant census tract-level hot/cold spots of food insecurity. Finally, we utilized a Mann-Whitney-U test to compare hot spot tracts to cold spot tracts in relation to the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index. We found that hot spot tracts had higher overall social vulnerability index scores (P

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Ramphul & Linda Highfield & Shreela Sharma, 2023. "Examining neighborhood-level hot and cold spots of food insecurity in relation to social vulnerability in Houston, Texas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-9, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0280620
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280620
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jerry Shannon, 2016. "Beyond the Supermarket Solution: Linking Food Deserts, Neighborhood Context, and Everyday Mobility," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(1), pages 186-202, January.
    2. Rhone, Alana & Ver Ploeg, Michele & Williams, Ryan & Breneman, Vince, 2019. "Understanding Low-Income and Low-Access Census Tracts Across the Nation: Subnational and Subpopulation Estimates of Access to Healthy Food," Economic Information Bulletin 289136, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2020. "Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2019," Agricultural Economic Reports 305693, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, "undated". "Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2020," USDA Miscellaneous 313486, United States Department of Agriculture.
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