Table 2.
Foods available from businesses, the Bronx v. the UES, 2015
| Characteristics of businesses* | Bronx | UES | Bronx – UES (% age-point difference) | 95 % CI | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | %† | n | %† | |||
| Overall businesses | 662 | 100·0 | 330 | 100·0 | 0·0 | – |
| Offering any food | 249 | 37·6 | 91 | 27·6 | 10·0 | 4·0, 16·1 |
| Offering any fruits or vegetables | 184 | 27·8 | 76 | 23·0 | 4·8 | –0·9, 10·4 |
| Offering any whole grains | 112 | 16·9 | 64 | 19·4 | –2·5 | –7·6, 2·7 |
| Offering any nuts | 92 | 13·9 | 23 | 7·0 | 6·9 | 3·1, 10·7 |
| Offering any refined sweets | 212 | 32·0 | 81 | 24·5 | 7·5 | 1·6, 13·3 |
| Offering any salty/fatty fare | 202 | 30·5 | 85 | 25·8 | 4·8 | –1·1, 10·6 |
| Offering any healthful foods‡ | 200 | 30·2 | 82 | 24·8 | 5·4 | –0·5, 11·2 |
| Offering only foods that were less-healthful§ | 48 | 7·3 | 9 | 2·7 | 4·5 | 1·9, 7·2 |
| Food Stores‖ | 76 | 11·0 | 14 | 4·2 | 7·2 | 4·0, 10·5 |
| Offering any food | 76 | 100·0 | 14 | 100·0 | 0·0 | 0·0, 0·0 |
| Offering any fruits or vegetables | 66 | 86·8 | 9 | 64·3 | 22·6 | –3·7, 48·8 |
| Offering any whole grains | 58 | 76·3 | 8 | 57·0 | 19·2 | –8·5, 46·8 |
| Offering any nuts | 63 | 82·9 | 9 | 64·3 | 18·6 | –7·9, 45·1 |
| Offering any refined sweets | 71 | 93·4 | 13 | 92·9 | 0·6 | –14·0, 15·2 |
| Offering any salty/fatty fare | 72 | 95·0 | 13 | 93·0 | 1·9 | –12·5, 16·3 |
| Offering any healthful foods‡ ‖ | 73 | 96·1 | 11 | 78·6 | 17·5 | –4·5, 39·4 |
| Offering only foods that were less-healthful§ ¶ | 2 | 2·6 | 3 | 21·4 | –18·8 | –40·6, 3·0 |
| Restaurants‖ | 81 | 12·0 | 59 | 18·0 | –5·6 | –10·5, –0·8 |
| Offering any food** | 81 | 100·0 | 58 | 98·3 | 1·7 | –1·6, 5·0 |
| Offering any fruits or vegetables | 77 | 95·0 | 55 | 93·0 | 1·8 | –6·1, 9·8 |
| Offering any whole grains | 28 | 34·6 | 52 | 88·1 | –53·6 | –66·8, –40·3 |
| Offering any nuts | 0 | 0·0 | 11 | 18·6 | –18·6 | –28·6, –8·7 |
| Offering any refined sweets | 63 | 77·8 | 56 | 94·9 | –17·1 | –27·8, –6·5 |
| Offering any salty/fatty fare | 80 | 98·8 | 57 | 97·0 | 2·2 | –3·1, 7·4 |
| Offering any healthful foods‡ †† | 78 | 96·3 | 58 | 98·3 | –2·0 | –7·3, 3·3 |
| Offering only foods that were less-healthful§ †† | 3 | 3·7 | 0 | 0·0 | 3·7 | –0·4, 7·8 |
| OSBs‖ | 481 | 72·7 | 248 | 75·2 | –2·5 | –8·3, 3·3 |
| Offering any food | 72 | 15·0 | 11 | 4·4 | 10·5 | 6·4, 14·6 |
| Offering any fruits or vegetables | 26 | 5·0 | 4 | 2·0 | 3·8 | 1·2, 6·4 |
| Offering any whole grains | 25 | 5·2 | 4 | 1·6 | 3·6 | 1·1, 6·1 |
| Offering any nuts | 29 | 6·0 | 3 | 1·2 | 4·8 | 2·3, 7·3 |
| Offering any refined sweets | 71 | 14·8 | 10 | 4·0 | 10·7 | 6·7, 14·7 |
| Offering any salty/fatty fare | 41 | 8·5 | 9 | 3·6 | 4·9 | 1·5, 8·3 |
| Offering any healthful foods‡ | 34 | 7·1 | 5 | 2·0 | 5·1 | 2·2, 7·9 |
| Offering only foods that were less-healthful§ | 38 | 7·9 | 6 | 2·4 | 5·5 | 2·4, 8·6 |
| Street vendors‖ | 24 | 3·6 | 9 | 2·7 | 0·9 | –1·4, 3·2 |
| Offering any food | 20 | 83·3 | 8 | 88·9 | –5·6 | –30·9, 19·8 |
| Offering any fruits or vegetables | 15 | 62·5 | 8 | 89·0 | –26·4 | –54·6, 1·8 |
| Offering any whole grains | 1 | 4·2 | 0 | 0·0 | 4·2 | –3·8, 12·2 |
| Offering any nuts | 0 | 0·0 | 0 | 0·0 | 0·0 | 0·0, 0·0 |
| Offering any refined sweets | 7 | 29·2 | 2 | 22·2 | 6·9 | –25·7, 39·6 |
| Offering any salty/fatty fare | 9 | 37·5 | 6 | 66·7 | –29·2 | –65·5, 7·2 |
| Offering any healthful foods‡ | 15 | 62·5 | 8 | 88·9 | –26·4 | –54·6, 1·8 |
| Offering only foods that were less-healthful§ | 5 | 20·8 | 0 | 0·0 | 20·8 | 4·6, 37·1 |
OSBs, other storefront businesses; UES, Upper East Side (neighbourhood of Manhattan).
Exact determination of food/drink offerings could only be made for businesses that were open at the time of assessments; for imputation of food/drink offering from businesses closed at the time of assessment, please see online supplementary material (Supplemental Table 2).
Column percentage; denominators for column percentages are the n values in the preceding table row having the lesser degree of indentation.
‘any healthful foods’ = any fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or nuts, regardless of other food/drink availability.
‘only foods that were less-healthful’ = only ‘refined sweets’ or ‘salty/fatty fare’ for food options; no healthful foods nor foods considered neither healthful nor less-healthful such as eggs, cheese and poultry.
Please see footnotes to Table 1 for definition. Note: other than a fish market in the Bronx selling only fresh seafood, all other businesses that offered any food in a given food category offered at least one read-to-consume option in that category. Additionally, some businesses offered free items: In the Bronx, free candy was available from two real estate offices, a tax office and a beauty salon; complimentary donuts were available from a real estate office. In the UES, free candy was available from a bank; samples of croutons were available from a cookware store; samples of chocolate were available from a chocolatier.
There were a few ‘food stores’ offering only foods that were less-healthful: in the Bronx, a convenience mart and a shop selling processed meats; in the UES, a candy shop, a bakery of confectionary goods and a market specialising in red and processed meats. An additional market in the Bronx sold only fresh seafood (not categorised as healthful or less-healthful).
Not all restaurants sold food; a bar in the UES only offered drinks.
Three restaurants in the Bronx offered only foods that were less-healthful: an ice-cream shop and two national-chain pizza outlets.