A Spatial analysis of population at risk of food insecurity using the voices from a Photovoice study

An exploratory mixed-methods approach

Abstract

To better understand community-level impacts of the built environmental quality on residents with less economic resources to acquire food, it is fruitful to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to the investigation. We explored how the level of spatial accessibility in communities change if we incorporate even a few factors of barriers on journey to food voiced in a Photovoice study. The resulting population coverage by food outlets was dramatically reduced in both rural and urban communities, suggesting that the usual proximity-based spatial analysis likely grossly underestimate the population at risk of lacking access to food. Therefore, a ‘real’ spatial accessibility can only be understood by incorporating factors of barriers to get to food outlets, informed by the insights of community members.