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Pike Moore Diss_5.26.2020.pdf (4.41 MB)

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The Ecology of Choice: Translation of Landscape Metrics into the Assessment of the Food Environment Using Cleveland, Ohio as a Case Study

Pike Moore, Stephanie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1590493815871401

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Healthy food access has been a focal point for studying obesogenic environments. Food environments, often categorized as “food deserts” or “food swamps,” have long dominated the conversation in explaining racial and socioeconomic disparities of nutrition-related health outcomes. Food retail-based interventions focused on addressing healthy food access, either by introducing new large food retail venues or working within smaller food retail venues (e.g., corner stores) to increase healthy food options, have had mixed results with respect to shifting food procurement and dietary patterns within disparate populations. This may be due to a lack of consideration of additional environmental-related factors effecting choice. Current methodology for examining the food environment focuses on point-based typology of food retail outlets, such as distance to nearest grocery store or density of corner stores and gas stations. These singular point-based methods capture structural and compositional facets of the food environment, but do not capture the necessary aspects which may macroscopically shape food procurement behavior and dietary decision-making. This research seeks to define more refined characteristics that better represent the food environment using metrics from the field of ecology. This research focuses on the food environment in Cleveland, Ohio as a case study. Aim 1 uses measures of biodiversity, such as richness and evenness, to reclassify the food landscape. Aim 2 examines change in the landscape over time across three spatial dimensions (place-, space- and landscape-based) and integrates landscape metrics, such as extent, subdivision, geometry, and isolation to better capture and define change in the food environment. Aim 3 compares different imputation methods, last observation carried forward and complete cases, to test whether the metrics identified in Aim 2 are robust despite missingness. Conclusions drawn across the three aims of this study provide novel insight into the food environment and may illuminate opportunities for future translational research for other built environment and health outcomes research.
Darcy Freedman, PhD, MPH (Advisor)
Erika Trapl, PhD (Committee Chair)
Siran Koroukian, PhD (Committee Member)
Karen Abbott, PhD (Committee Member)
172 p.
Behavioral Sciences; Ecology; Epidemiology; Geographic Information Science; Landscape Architecture; Public Health
food environment, food access, food desert, measurement, spatial ecology, choice architecture

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Pike Moore, S. (2020). The Ecology of Choice: Translation of Landscape Metrics into the Assessment of the Food Environment Using Cleveland, Ohio as a Case Study [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1590493815871401

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Pike Moore, Stephanie. The Ecology of Choice: Translation of Landscape Metrics into the Assessment of the Food Environment Using Cleveland, Ohio as a Case Study. 2020. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1590493815871401.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Pike Moore, Stephanie. "The Ecology of Choice: Translation of Landscape Metrics into the Assessment of the Food Environment Using Cleveland, Ohio as a Case Study." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1590493815871401

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1590493815871401
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