Table 1 Definitions of food deserts used in previous studies
Definition | Geography | Study |
|---|---|---|
Term first used in UK to describe “rapidly decreasing number of grocers in urban, low income neighborhoods after World War II” | Urban areas | [40, p. 3] |
Spatial disparity in access to retail food stores | Urban areas | [82] |
Areas “where cheap and varied food is only accessible to those who have private transport or are able to pay the costs of public transport” | Urban areas | [83, p. 65] |
Areas with barriers to food access based on “ability” (physical barriers), “assets” (financial barriers), or “attitudes” (state of mind) | Urban areas | [84, p. 241] |
“Economic and physical access constraints perceived and experienced by disadvantaged consumers in an area of compound social exclusion and poor food retail access” | Urban areas | [85, p. 2084] |
Empirical definition—minority neighborhoods with lower access to healthy food destinations within 5-min travel times | Urban areas | [41] |
“Places where the transportation constraints of carless residents combine with a dearth of supermarkets to force residents to pay inflated prices for inferior and unhealthy foods at small markets and convenience stores” | Urban areas | [44, p. 352] |
“Socially-distressed neighbourhoods with relatively low average household incomes and poor access to healthy food” | Urban areas | [30, p. 1] |
“Urban areas with 10 or fewer stores and no stores with more than 20 employees” | Urban areas | [29, p. 372] |
“Poor urban areas, where residents cannot buy affordable, healthy food” | Urban areas | [76, p. 436] |
Locales situated more than 10 miles (16 km) from a supermarket | Rural | |
“Socio-economically disadvantaged areas with relatively low household incomes and poor geographical access to nutritious, affordable food sources” | Not specified | [15, p. 2] |
“Areas of relative exclusion where people experience physical and economic barriers to accessing health food” | Not specified | [27, p. 138] |
A low-income tract where at least 33% of the population is greater than 1 mile (1.61 km) (in an urban area) or greater than 10 miles (16 km) (in a rural area) from the nearest supermarket, supercenter, or large grocery store | Urban and rural areas | [39] |
“Low-income, urban neighborhoods, often centrally located, with inadequate physical or economic access to healthy food” | Urban areas | [25, p. 204] |