Center on Population Health and Aging

Pilot Projects

Pilot Project 10: The Effect of Neighborhood Environment on Diet and Health among Urban Elderly

Principal Investigator: Stephen A. Matthews (Penn State).

Specific Aims

This CPHA project investigates the relations between food environments, diet (fresh fruit and vegetable consumption), and health outcomes (obesity) among elderly respondents within the city of Philadelphia. Pilot funds are used to integrate two data sets with derived geographic and contextual data-the Community Health Data Base in southeastern Pennsylvania and the Neighborhood Food Environment, Diet and Health Study, a quasi-experimental intervention study in two low-income minority neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The analysis of these data will address the following aims: (1) description and comparison of fruit and vegetable consumption patterns and measures of health among elderly urban residents; (2) the evaluation of whether consumption patterns and health have changed over time among the elderly urban residents; and (3) the analysis of the mediating effects of food price and availability on the diet and health of elderly urban residents.

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