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Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
. 2016 Jan 1;107(Suppl 1):eS34–eS41. doi: 10.17269/CJPH.107.5309

The food environment and diet quality of urban-dwelling older women and men: Assessing the moderating role of diet knowledge

Geneviève Mercille 16,✉, Lucie Richard 26,36, Lise Gauvin 16,46,56, Yan Kestens 16,46, Bryna Shatenstein 66,76, Mark Daniel 86,96, Hélène Payette 106,116
PMCID: PMC6972149  PMID: 27281515

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The relationships between local food environments and dietary patterns are important for older adults and could be different in men and women. We examined associations between exposure to neighbourhood food sources and food consumption and the moderating role of diet knowledge separately among older women and men living in Montreal in 2003-2005 (n=722).

METHODS: The proportion of fast-food outlets relative to all restaurants (%FFO) and the proportion of healthy food stores relative to all stores (%HFS) were estimated for 500 m buffers around participants’ homes. Two dietary patterns, designated ”Western” and ”prudent”, reflecting lower- and higher-quality diets respectively, were identified from food frequency questionnaire data. The unique and interactive effects of diet knowledge and food-source exposure on diet scores were tested with separate linear regression models for women and men.

RESULTS: For men, greater %FFO exposure was related to lower prudent diet scores (ß = -0.18, p = 0.02), but no effect of %HFS exposure was observed and no interactions were statistically significant. For women, an inverse relationship between %FFO and prudent diet scores was strongest among those with low diet knowledge (ß=-0.22, p<0.01). No other associations were statistically significant.

CONCLUSION: Older men’s diet patterns may reflect unhealthy cues associated with fast-food outlets. Among women, diet knowledge potentiated both negative and positive relationships with the food environment. In the absence of consistent main effects of the food environment on diet scores, subgroup analysis is a promising avenue for research.

Key words: Diet, older adults, urban population, food supply, effect modifier

Footnotes

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant MOP-173669 to the VoisiNuAge study and MOP-62842 to the NuAge Study, and grant MFE-226542 to GM) and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (grant #16207 to LR and #20328 to YK). LG held a CIHR/CRPO (Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Centre de recherche en prévention de l’obésité) Applied Public Health Chair on Neighbourhoods, Lifestyle, and Healthy Body Weight. GM was also supported by the Strategic Training Program in Transdisciplinary Research on Public Health Interventions: Promotion, Prevention and Public Policy (4P), a partnership of CIHR and the Québec Population Health Research Network. YK holds a CIHR Applied Public Health Chair on Urban Interventions and Population Health. The results presented in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view of the funders.

Conflict of Interest: None to declare.

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