The Effect of Food Access on Elderly Women's Food Consumption and Health

In this study, we examined the effect of food access on elderly women's food consumption and health by analyzing the results of mail surveys in Shirakawa city, Fukushima, Japan, where the city center has been hollowed out.We compared the local mail surveys conducted in 2010 and 2015, before and after the 2011 opening of a supermarket. We focused on elderly women, because among this demographic, indicators such as rate of walking to the store and frequency of food shopping has increased significantly in this period. Most of the analyses were based on data from female residents aged over 65 years in the 2015 survey (n＝215).The results are as follows: First, we compared the frequency of shopping and dietary (i.e., the dietary variety score (DVS)) and health indicators (i.e., waist circumference and activities of daily living) between the south district, where the distance to supermarket is over 500m, and another area where it is within 500m. The DVS was lower in the south district. However, there were not significant differences among health indicators. Second, we compared the dietary and health indicators across three groups, divided by the frequency of food shopping: more than 7 times per week, 2-6 times, or 1 or less than 1 shopping trip per week. Compared to a reference value, women's waist circumferences were smaller in the more-frequent shopping group. Third, structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that walking to the store was positively associated with the frequency of shopping trips, which was positively associated with higher DVS and inversely associated with women's waist circumference.