Table 3.
Description of Participants' Access and Mobility, Quality of Food Environment, Eating Behaviors, and Alternative Food Sources by Food Security Status
| All (n = 610) |
Food Secure (n = 135) |
Household Insecure (n = 74) |
Adult Insecure (n = 102) |
Child Insecure (n = 299) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access and mobility | |||||
| Own car | 70.7 | 77.0 | 73.0 | 62.7 | 69.9 |
| Car available during day | 69.2 | 68.1 | 62.2 | 67.6 | 71.9 |
| Other transportation | |||||
| Friend | 8.2 | 8.1 | 2.7 | 9.8 | 9.0 |
| Neighbor | 23.8 | 8.1 | 10.8 | 25.5 | 33.4***† |
| Relative | 63.4 | 37.0 | 33.8 | 67.6 | 81.3***† |
| Charge for transportation1 | 14.8 | 10.9 | 25.9 | 11.5 | 15.4 |
| Store where buy most of groceries | |||||
| Distance2 | 10.0 ± 2.2 | 9.3 ± 2.8 | 9.8 ± 1.5 | 10.2 ± 2.7 | 9.6 ± 3.0 |
| (10) | (10) | (10) | (10) | (10) | |
| Ride with friend or family | 29.5 | 21.5 | 27.0 | 39.2 | 30.4 |
| Type of main store | |||||
| Supermarket | 62.3 | 74.1 | 78.4 | 61.8 | 53.2***† |
| Supercenter or mass merchandiser |
12.9 | 11.8 | 10.8 | 12.7 | 14.0 |
| Frequency | |||||
| ≥ 1 time/week | 62.9 | 71.1 | 50.0 | 59.8 | 63.5 |
| Every two weeks | 27.5 | 17.0 | 44.6 | 27.4 | 28.1 |
| Type of 2nd store | |||||
| Supermarket | 15.3 | 7.4 | 20.3 | 13.7 | 18.1* |
| Small grocery store | 13.4 | 26.7 | 24.3 | 10.8 | 5.7***† |
| Supercenter or mass merchandiser | 63.4 | 52.6 | 50.0 | 70.6 | 69.2***† |
| Frequency | |||||
| ≥ 1 time/week | 61.1 | 58.5 | 43.2 | 61.8 | 66.6** |
| Every two weeks | 26.6 | 23.7 | 36.5 | 28.4 | 24.7 |
| Weekly expenditures for | 95.3 ± 56.8 | 91.7 ± 54.8 | 97.0 ± 47.1 | 88.4 ± 58.5 | 98.8 ± 59.1 |
| groceries3 | (80) | (80) | (100) | (75) | (80) |
| Quality of food environment | |||||
| Community food resource | |||||
| Little variety in types of foods | 92.5 | 86.7 | 91.9 | 93.1 | 95.0** |
| Few grocery stores or supermarkets | 93.1 | 89.6 | 90.5 | 93.1 | 95.3* |
| Food prices are high | 94.4 | 88.9 | 94.6 | 95.1 | 96.7** |
| Store where purchase most of groceries |
|||||
| Fair-to-poor variety of fruits and vegetables | 10.2 | 8.1 | 14.9 | 7.8 | 10.7 |
| Poor freshness of fruits and vegetables | 11.3 | 5.9 | 8.1 | 8.8 | 15.4** |
| Poor quality of fruits and vegetables | 17.9 | 7.4 | 18.9 | 17.6 | 22.4***† |
| Spotty | 5.4 | 2.2 | 6.8 | 2.9 | 7.4* |
| Soft | 7.4 | 3.0 | 8.1 | 8.8 | 8.7 |
| Overripe | 13.9 | 4.4 | 10.8 | 11.8 | 19.7***† |
| Fruits and vegetables expensive | 29.0 | 18.5 | 45.9 | 33.3 | 28.1 |
| Eating behaviors | |||||
| Daily servings of fruit | 1.9 ± 0.9 | 2.0 ± 1.1 | 1.6 ± 0.7 | 2.0 ± 0.8 | 1.9 ± 0.9 |
| (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | (2) | |
| Daily servings of vegetables | 1.5 ± 0.9 | 1.6 ± 1.1 | 1.6 ± 1.0 | 1.6 ± 0.9 | 1.5 ± 0.9 |
| (1) | (2) | (1.5) | (1) | (1) | |
| Daily servings of sugar-sweetened beverages | 1.7 ± 1.6 | 1.7 ± 1.8 | 1.6 ± 1.5 | 1.8 ± 1.8 | 1.7 ± 1.5 |
| (1) | (1) | (1) | (1) | (1) | |
| Fast food meals | |||||
| Weekly frequency at | 1.1 ± 1.1 | 1.4 ± 1.5 | 0.7 ± 0.9 | 1.0 ± 1.1 | 1.0 ± 0.9 |
| fast food restaurant | (1) | (1) | (1) | (1) | (1) |
| Weekly frequency | 0.7 ± 0.9 | 0.8 ± 1.1 | 0.5 ± 0.8 | 0.8 ± 1.1 | 0.8 ± 0.9 |
| bring home to eat | (0) | (0.5) | (0) | (0) | (1) |
| Weekly frequency eat | 5.0 ± 3.2 | 3.7 ± 2.3 | 4.1 ± 2.5 | 5.7 ± 3.8 | 5.6 ± 3.2***† |
| pinto or black beans | (5) | (3) | (3.5) | (7) | (7) |
| Weekly frequency eat | 3.2 ± 2.8 | 2.7 ± 1.2 | 3.0 ± 1.7 | 3.8 ± 4.0 | 3.3 ± 2.9 |
| chicken or fish | (3) | (3) | (3) | (3) | (3) |
| Weekly frequency of | 4.5 ± 2.9 | 4.2 ± 2.8 | 3.9 ± 2.7 | 5.4 ± 2.4 | 5.4 ± 2.4***† |
| regular breakfast meal | (7) | (4) | (3) | (7) | (7) |
| Alternative food sources | |||||
| Purchase prepared food from a neighbor or friend | 24.9 | 45.9 | 25.7 | 17.6 | 17.7***† |
| Purchase food from mobile food vendors | 29.7 | 29.6 | 20.3 | 25.5 | 33.4 |
| Purchase food from pulga (flea market) | 30.7 | 43.7 | 31.1 | 22.5 | 27.4***† |
1 Proportion of participants who receive transportation from friend, neighbor, or relative (n = 420)
2 Data provided by 592 participants.
3 Data provided by 604 participants
Statistical significance in trend across categories of increasing food insecurity: *p≤0.05 **p≤0.01 ***p≤0.001
† Statistically significant after Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons p ≤ 0.001