Healthiness of household food expenditure in urban and peri-urban Kenya: How much is explained by a spatial measure of the food environment

This paper addresses the pressing policy issue of food access and availability in low-income urban settings, particularly in the context of the nutrition transition, urbanization, and evolving food systems. By regressing food expenditure data against proximity-to-outlet measures for various outlet types, the study focuses on estimating distance elasticities—quantifying the responsiveness of household food shopping expenditure to variations in distances to different food outlets. The key finding underscores the significance of household location characteristics over average distance to outlets in predicting the healthiness of food purchases. The research further identifies variations in distance elasticities based on factors such as the main shopper's age, household poverty probability, and location. This study introduces a novel application of distance elasticity, paving the way for future investigations into food environment metrics within urban and peri-urban settings of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The insights gained aim to enhance the understanding of factors influencing food shopping behavior and guide strategies for promoting healthier food options through increased expenditures.