Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis

Food insecurity is a leading public health challenge in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio, as in many American cities, there exists a great disparity between Black and White households in relation to food insecurity. This study investigates the degree to which this gap can be attributed to differ...

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Autores principales: Koh, Keumseok, Kaiser, Michelle L., Sweeney, Glennon, Samadi, Karima, Hyder, Ayaz
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751387
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155488
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author Koh, Keumseok
Kaiser, Michelle L.
Sweeney, Glennon
Samadi, Karima
Hyder, Ayaz
author_facet Koh, Keumseok
Kaiser, Michelle L.
Sweeney, Glennon
Samadi, Karima
Hyder, Ayaz
author_sort Koh, Keumseok
collection PubMed
description Food insecurity is a leading public health challenge in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio, as in many American cities, there exists a great disparity between Black and White households in relation to food insecurity. This study investigates the degree to which this gap can be attributed to differences in food shopping behavior, neighborhood perception, and socioeconomic characteristics. A Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method is used to analyze a household survey dataset collected in 2014. We find a 34.2 percent point difference in food security between White and Black households. Variables related to food shopping behavior, neighborhood perception, and socioeconomic characteristics explain 13.8 percent, 11.6 percent, and 63.1 percent of the difference, respectively. These independent variables combined can explain 68.2 percent of the food security gap between White and Black households. Most of this is attributable to socioeconomic variables. Sense of friendship in neighborhood, use of private vehicles, and satisfaction of neighborhood food environment also partially contribute to the food security gap.
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spelling pubmed-74322892020-08-24 Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis Koh, Keumseok Kaiser, Michelle L. Sweeney, Glennon Samadi, Karima Hyder, Ayaz Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Food insecurity is a leading public health challenge in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio, as in many American cities, there exists a great disparity between Black and White households in relation to food insecurity. This study investigates the degree to which this gap can be attributed to differences in food shopping behavior, neighborhood perception, and socioeconomic characteristics. A Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method is used to analyze a household survey dataset collected in 2014. We find a 34.2 percent point difference in food security between White and Black households. Variables related to food shopping behavior, neighborhood perception, and socioeconomic characteristics explain 13.8 percent, 11.6 percent, and 63.1 percent of the difference, respectively. These independent variables combined can explain 68.2 percent of the food security gap between White and Black households. Most of this is attributable to socioeconomic variables. Sense of friendship in neighborhood, use of private vehicles, and satisfaction of neighborhood food environment also partially contribute to the food security gap. MDPI 2020-07-29 2020-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7432289/ /pubmed/32751387 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155488 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Koh, Keumseok
Kaiser, Michelle L.
Sweeney, Glennon
Samadi, Karima
Hyder, Ayaz
Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title_full Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title_fullStr Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title_short Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis
title_sort explaining racial inequality in food security in columbus, ohio: a blinder–oaxaca decomposition analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751387
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155488
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