The Roles of Food at Home and in the Neighborhood Food Environment

Purpose 

Obesity is an issue of concern globally because of the risks it exposes individuals to concerning opportunistic diseases. The main factor contributing to occurrence of obesity and overweight in the world is the food environment. Notably, more people are consuming junk food now more than ever because of its affordability and availability. The article analysis focuses on the study of Food Environments and Obesity: Household Diet Expenditure Versus Food Deserts by Chen et al., (2016) . It examines association between being obese and several aspects of the food environment such as food deserts at the neighborhood and home and their contribution towards the prevalence in the U.S. 

Research Questions and Hypothesis 

How was obesity and overweight status influenced by individual-level factors such as gender and other self-reported behavior responses? 

How obesity and overweight status was influenced by household-level factors including ethnicity, education, race, income, and a home food environment 

How obesity and overweight status were influenced by neighborhood-level factors such as county-level densities of various food store types, poverty rates, and metro status as well as the census tract level indicator of food desert status per USDA regulations. 

Research Methods 

Identification of Study Design 

The researchers adopted an experimental design in investigating the occurrence of obesity. Accordingly, an experimental research design focuses on an independent variable that the researcher identifies but is not manipulated. In this case, food environments were the independent variable. The effects of the food environment on the prevalence of obesity were measures through the analysis of different multivariate data. Similarly, the researchers did not randomly assign groups; instead, they utilized the existing groups in the U.S based on household's food consumption. 

Data Collection Method 

Data utilized in the study was collected through the use of surveys. Ideally, surveys are a practical method of collecting data for an experimental study because it involves people who are the respondent to the questions. Usually, the researcher presented a set of questions which were then answered by a yes or a no coded by 1 and 0, respectively. Naturally, this helps the information on the relevant themes of the study from the available sample groups. 

Identification of Data Collected 

The data collected was quantitative. The available data was easily manipulated based on the descriptive statistics the researchers applied to the data sets. Also, their researchers were able to manipulate the variables. This made it possible to compare and contrast the results from the different counties. Last, the measurement method qualifies the data collection method as quantitative because of the use of the surveys. Generally, the use of surveys makes it possible to generate models and hypothesis which can be tested by the results. 

Weakness of Data Collection Method 

First, the quantitative data collected might miss out on the contextual details. For instance, the study relies on shopping trends based on the records for the past several years. The statistics might not reflect the participants' experiences, which necessitates the need to have specific consumerism trends. Similarly, the results obtained are limited because they provide numerical descriptions as opposed to narrative detail. This implies that researchers fail to capture the human perceptions of what they consume that might result in obesity. 

Method of Analyzing data 

In various research, descriptive statistics is applied in different variables depending on its nature whether dependent or independent. Ideally, it was an appropriate method because it accounted for the means for each county. Additionally, it was essential for reporting the standard deviation for the continuous variables. Notably, the data analysis method in question was appropriate because it put the researchers in a position of accounting for their multilevel data structure based on the lower probability of the participants being obese or overweight. 

Weakness in Method of Analyzing Data 

Descriptive statistics is limited because it allows the researchers to make summations about people. Usually, this encompasses measurable outcomes based on the given population. Consequently, it becomes impossible to utilize the data obtained from the collected information to generalize the data on other people or objects. For instance, based on the counties used in this study, it is impossible to generalize the same for obesity prevalence in a nation such as Canada because it will result in a certain level of bias in the absence of a statistical test. 

Critical Demographics of The Population 

The household demographics included adults that were aged 18 years and above. For the children, the inclusion criteria factored children who were between 2-17 years of age. The other factor of consideration was the ethnicity in which the researchers factored the BMI of the participants from the different households. 

Finding of The Researchers 

The findings of the study indicate that a fraction of the sample representative was overweight. Equally important, the same number was also obese; this was in line with the statistics that represented the national figures that took place on a national survey. It is essential to point out that almost all persons based on individual demographics had lifestyle choices that encouraged the emergence of obesity or the development of overweight status. Similarly, age played a pivotal role in the development of obesity and overweight status. Females were more susceptible to being overweight compared to males. The higher diet feature was equivalently associated with the overweight statues compared to a low diet attribute among the households. These results imply that the control group was essential for making comparisons during the study. The study group demonstrates a high prevalence in the occurrence of obesity compared to the examples drawn from the information obtained from the public domain. 

Limitations in The Research 

Accordingly, the main limitation in the research was the misrepresentation of the target population. Ideally, obesity affects all people regardless of age. The study focused on the specific age group related to younger children and middle-aged persons. Equally important, the study was time-consuming and expensive. It implies that researchers utilized many resources to ensure the study was completed on time. Another factor that was an issue of concern was the aspect of data analysis. The data was not easy to analyze because of the statistical test that was applied to the study. The manipulation of data takes time, and a small misreading can easily result in inconsistent data. Another challenge that researchers faced was the inability to control the environment. The implication is that despite there being a controlled environment, it was difficult for the researchers to have a controlled environment, which easily translates to statistical bias. The main limitation of the study is the inability to generalize or utilize the results for future studies. Ideally, it is impossible to refer to these results for future use in further studies. 

Conclusion 

The researchers concluded that the study was the pioneer in attributing the roles of food at home in comparison to the neighborhood food environment in the different counties. In studying obesity, the scholars found out that obesity and overweight prevalence was dependent on the leading food at the home measure and the USDA-score. The results from the study demonstrate that households with higher compliance to the dietary guidelines of American standards were less likely to suffer from the instance of obesity. Other studies demonstrated similar results in which members of the households complied to requires standards of macronutrient intake. This study paves the way for further studies to investigate the impacts of food deserts on the prevalence of obesity and overweight in different parts of the world. 

Reference 

Chen, D., Jaenicke, E. C., & Volpe, R. J. (2016). Food Environments and Obesity: Household Diet Expenditure Versus Food Deserts. American Journal of Public Health , 106 (5), 881-888.