Adherence
In metropolitan areas, increased distance to supermarkets is associated with higher obesity prevalence and lower fruit and vegetable consumption, whereas in nonmetropolitan areas, distance to supermarkets shows no significant association with either outcome.
If you live in a city, living closer to a supermarket is linked to better diet and lower obesity risk. However, if you live in a rural area, simply moving closer to a supermarket does not guarantee better health; other factors like income, education, and local food culture are likely more important drivers of your diet.
The odds of obesity increased and odds of consuming F/V five times or more per day decreased as distance to supermarket increased in metropolitan areas for most store size categories. In nonmetropolitan areas, however, distance to supermarket had no associations with obesity or F/V consumption for all supermarket size categories.
Why this rating
Large national sample size (N>1.4M) and robust multilevel modeling, but reliance on self-reported data and cross-sectional design limits causal inference.
Source
Associations of supermarket accessibility with obesity and fruit and vegetable consumption in the conterminous United States
Akihiko Michimi et al. · International Journal of Health Geographics · 2010
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →