The Great Recession Disproportionately Affected Neighborhoods and Family Health Environments

Introduction:

The Great Recession is the most recent, longest, and devastating economic downturn since the Great Depression. After the Great Recession, families had less healthy home environments for children—such as purchasing cheaper, less nutritious, more calorie-dense food. However, it is not empirically known how the recession influenced home health environments. Given that disadvantaged neighborhoods had more vacant properties, decreased sales in local retail stores, limited access to affordable, nutritious foods, and increased exposure to community violence after the recession, this study attempts to investigate a neighborhood-level mechanism through which the recession could affect family health environments. This study investigates neighborhood economic changes after the Great Recession and their associations with home food environments in a large, statewide representative, and ethnically diverse sample.

Methods:

We used the Geographic Research on Wellbeing study (GROW; 2012-2013) linked to the Census 2000 and the American Community Survey 2009-2013. The GROW is a follow-up survey of mothers who participated in California’s Maternal and Infant Health Assessment survey (MIHA; 2003-2007) and included questions for mothers with a young child. We included mothers who lived at the same neighborhood (i.e., census tract) at the time of MIHA and GROW (N=1,359). The two independent variables were changes in absolute value of the neighborhood economic indicators between year 2000 and 2009-2013: (1) median household income (4 categories: decreased; increased by $0-9,999; $10,000-14,999; ≥$15,000) and (2) proportions of vacant housing units (decreased; increased by 0-2.99%; 3-4.99%; ≥5.00%). The dependent variables were (1) availability of vegetables in the home (very often=1; otherwise=0), (2) availability of fruits in the home (very often=1; otherwise=0), and (3) cooking dinner frequently at home (5-7 days a week=1; otherwise=0). We examined neighborhood economic changes among all U.S. census tracts between 2000 and 2009-2013. Then, weighted logistic regression was used for each dependent variable by poor and non-poor families after controlling for maternal sociodemographic characteristics.

Results:

Neighborhood-level median household income and proportions of vacant housing units increased between 2000 and 2009-2013 overall. Neighborhoods with ≥ 20% poverty rate showed a lower increase in household median income and a greater increase in proportions of vacant housing units than those with < 20% poverty rate. In logistic regression models, living in neighborhoods that experienced an increase in median household income by $0-9,999, $10,000-14,999, and ≥$15,000 was significantly associated with increased odds of having vegetables and fruits in the home very often among poor families (compared with neighborhoods with decreased median household income). Among non-poor families, neighborhood economic changes were not significantly associated with a dependent variable.

Conclusions:

Findings support that economic hardships induced by the Great Recession were spatially distributed unequally and poor families in disadvantaged neighborhoods were the most vulnerable to unhealthy home environments with a “triple threat” of a national economic crisis, neighborhood poverty, and family poverty after the recession. Poor families in disadvantaged neighborhoods require special attention to sustain home health environments during macroeconomic downturns. Addressing neighborhood-level interrelated social justice issues—segregation, community violence, safety, accessibility to resources, poverty— can help reduce perpetuated neighborhood disparities.