ArticleBMC public health2026
Mapping food access: how neighborhood deprivation shapes healthy food availability in the United Kingdom.
Article in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLimited access to affordable, nutritious food is a key structural determinant of health inequality. In the United Kingdom, food desert risk is often assumed to mirror socioeconomic deprivation, yet their alignment across small-area geographies remains unclear.
objectivesTo characterize the spatial distribution of food desert risk across England, Wales, and Scotland; quantify its association and concordance with area-level deprivation; and identify deprivation domains most strongly linked to food desert risk.
methodsWe integrated the E-Food Desert Index (EFDI) with national Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) across 41,729 Lower Layer Super Output Areas and Data Zones using 2011 Census boundaries. Standardized scores and quartiles were analyzed using spatial clustering, correlation, multinomial regression, ordinary least squares, adaptive LASSO with interaction terms, and mixed-effects and spatial sensitivity analyses.
resultsFood desert risk and deprivation were moderately correlated (r = 0.40, p < 0.001) but showed substantial spatial discordance. Nearly half (48.2%) of the most deprived areas were also in the highest food desert quartile, while about one-third showed discordant classifications. Deprivation showed a strong graded association with food desert risk (RRR per IMD quartile = 3.07; 95% CI: 2.98–3.16). Employment deprivation was the strongest predictor across nations, followed by education, housing/access to services, and living environment. Antagonistic employment–income interactions were observed. Rural areas with low deprivation but high food desert risk were especially evident in Scotland.
conclusionsFood desert risk and deprivation represent overlapping but distinct dimensions of structural disadvantage. Reliance on deprivation indices alone may miss communities with substantial food access barriers, particularly in rural settings. Integrating food environment metrics alongside deprivation measures may improve place-based policy targeting.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.