Beyond food swamps and food deserts: exploring urban Australian food retail environment typologies

OBJECTIVE: ‘Food deserts’ and ‘food swamps’ are food retail environment typologies associated with unhealthy diet and obesity. The current study aimed to identify more complex food retail environment typologies and examine temporal trends. DESIGN: Measures of food retail environment accessibility and relative healthy food availability were defined for small areas (SA2s) of Melbourne, Australia, from a census of food outlets operating in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2016. SA2s were classified into typologies using a two-stage approach: (1) SA2s were sorted into twenty clusters according to accessibility and availability and (2) clusters were grouped using evidence-based thresholds. SETTING: The current study was set in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, Australia. SUBJECTS: Food retail environments in 301 small areas (Statistical Area 2) located in Melbourne in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2016. RESULTS: Six typologies were identified based on access (low, moderate and high) and healthy food availability including one where zero food outlets were present. Over the study period, SA2s experienced an overall increase in accessibility and healthiness. Distribution of typologies varied by geographic location and area-level socio-economic position. CONCLUSION: Multiple typologies with contrasting access and healthiness measures exist within Melbourne and these continue to change over time, and the majority of SA2s were dominated by the presence of unhealthy relative to healthy outlets, with SA2s experiencing growth and disadvantage having the lowest access and to a greater proportion of unhealthy outlets.