The dynamics between the food environment and residential segregation: Separate menus in metros, counties, and neighborhood

The food environment plays an important role in people's ability to access nutritious foods. While the literature is abundant on the differential food landscape, the underlying pathways by which residential segregation impacts the food environment have not been examined previously. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by specifically relating the different dimensions of residential segregation with the food environment. Variance function regression (VFR) is used to simultaneously model the means and variances, and therefore the net effects of residential segregation on the food environment.;The first analyses examines looks at all large metropolitan areas in the United States. Results show that the food environment varies by residential segregation. Metros that are more segregated tend to have relatively fewer healthy food outlets and also have larger travel distances to healthy food outlets. Increased residential segregation is also associated with less variation in the food environment. The association is especially strong for segregation by income. Areas where the poor or the affluent are segregated tend to have lower average food environment scores and less variation in those scores.;The second set of analyses examines proximal neighborhood factors in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolis and reveals very different dynamics are at play. The direction of association remains the same for Blacks and Hispanics, but is reversed for Asians. While no significant associations are observed for segregation of the poor, greater segregation of the affluent is associated with higher food environment scores.;Since underlying spatial patterning may differ by geographic scale and metropolitan context, the final set of analyses investigates how these associations differ between urban and rural counties. At this mid-level geographic scale, it appears that residential segregation by race has a very modest relationship with the food environment. In comparison, the association is stronger and the effects sizes are larger for economic segregation for both urban and rural counties. It has been suggested that different spatial scales may have implications for the magnitude and direction of residential segregation. The comparison of food access disparities at different geographic scales could therefore be central for deciding the most effective geographic level to intervene.