Fast food chains more common in deprived areas
7th January 2007
There are more fast food chains in the poorest areas of Scotland and England than in affluent areas. Recent research from the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow has found that there are almost five times as many outlets in the most economically deprived areas in comparison to the most affluent.
Overall there are 2535 branches of the four biggest fast food chains, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut, in Scotland and England. Together they provide an abundance of lower priced fast food choices.
This fast food focus in deprived areas creates what the researchers call an ‘obesogenic’ environment. MRC Fellow, Dr Steven Cummins of the Department of Geography at Queen Mary University of London who collaborated on the research, explains:
‘Easy access to fast foods, that may be lower in price than healthier options in shops a bus ride away, could influence peoples’ dietary choices. Making unhealthy choices the easy choices in economically deprived areas may help fuel the rise in obesity in those places, and of course, the health problems that follow. These include type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.’
When the researchers divided the number of fast food outlets per 1000 people in the population they discovered that there were almost ten times as many KFC’s, three times as many Burger Kings and four times as many McDonalds and Pizza Huts in the most deprived areas than in the most affluent.
The results clearly show a linear increase in the number of fast food chains and thus availability of unhealthy foods as you move from affluent to deprived areas. Why there is such a divide is less obvious. The authors suggest that both lower land prices and level of local demand for fast foods could well be influencing factors.
Original research paper: Neighbourhood fast food environment and area deprivation – substitution or concentration? Published online in ‘Appetite’ on 29th December 2006.
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