Food and alcohol access in neighborhoods of varying socioeconomic status

Our study examined the relationship between food and alcohol access by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) in a large urban county in Minnesota (n=298 census tracts). We hypothesized that the number of food stores would be negatively associated with the number of liquor stores in each census tract, and that the negative relationship between food and alcohol access would be stronger in poorer neighborhoods. Poisson regression was used to estimate effects. We found that the relationship between food and alcohol access differed by neighborhood SES, with higher income neighborhoods having more supermarkets and grocery stores and liquor stores (RR=1.47; p<.0001). Results suggest that food and alcohol access are interconnected and should be treated as related rather than distinct public health issues.