Improving food shopping access for people living in deprived neighbourhoods
has little effect on diet and health, says an editorial in this week's BMJ.

Ensuring communities have good access to healthy affordable food is one of
the government's joined up strategies to improve public health and reduce
health inequalities.

However, evidence to inform how, when, and where to reduce these
inequalities is only now emerging, and uncertainty remains over whether
large scale retail interventions actually work.

For instance, a recent study in Newcastle found that retail provision was
not independently associated with diet. Another in Leeds found positive
changes in fruit and vegetable consumption, while a similar study in
Glasgow found little evidence for an overall effect.

Despite some study limitations, the authors suggest that overall, retail
interventions may have either a small but important effect or no effect on
diet and health.

"If new retail provision is to have an impact on diet and health, we need a
multidimensional approach that also tackles food awareness, affordability,
and acceptability in addition to retail change," they write.

"Changing access through improving retail provision alone may not have a
substantial impact on diet and health. An approach that changes knowledge
and access simultaneously may have a better chance of securing improvements
in diet and health and a reduction in health inequalities," they conclude.

Contacts:
Leigh Sparks, Professor of Retail Studies, Institute for Retail Studies,
University of Stirling, Scotland, UK Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or
Dr Steven Cummins, MRC Fellow, Department of Geography, Queen Mary,
University of London, UK Currently in San Francisco (-8 hrs GMT) Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The full article can be found at BMJ online:
(Editorial: Large scale food retail interventions and diet)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7493/683