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The lack of access to healthy foods causes disparate rates of obesity and associated health problems in communities characterized by low socioeconomic status (Annotated bibliography analysis – ISS4304-0004)

Sociology

The lack of access to healthy foods causes disparate rates of obesity and associated health problems in communities characterized by low socioeconomic status (Annotated bibliography analysis – ISS4304-0004)

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 Disciplinary Personas: Sociological and Political Science  
 Theoretical BasisUse of disciplinary assumptions  Contribution to the interdisciplinary perspective of the social problem
Article 1 Wen, M., & Kowaleski-Jones, L. (2012). The built environment and risk of obesity in the United States: Racial–ethnic disparities. Health & Place, 18(6), 1314-1322. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.09.002 Behavior, 57(1), 1-21.      This article focuses on the state of neighborhood where an individual lives and how this contributes to an obesity risk.   The article further adds a racial-ethnic perspective to the inquiry. The findings were that density, walkability, and distance to parks, and race-ethnic factors affect obesity.   However racial-ethnic factors were not a significant determinant of obesity. White women did show some advantages of built environment and also household income was a critical factor predicting obesity.  This article presents a sociological view as it is centered on disparities in built environment amongst different social groups, how such disparity influences their interactions with amenities and how this translates into obesity risk.   It embodies a view of social systems (race, gender and ethnic groupings and related geographical locations) and how they influence lifestyle choices.  This article offers insight into the extent that lack of access to opportunity (such as parks) could cause obesity.   It offers a good starting point to explain the lack of access (to healthy food) and how this causes obesity in communities with low socioeconomic status.   The paper explains lack of access as a socially constructed phenomenon – a consequence of social actions.
Article 2 Yu, Q., Scribner, R. A., Leonardi, C., Zhang, L., Park, C., Chen, L., & Simonsen, N. R. (2017). Exploring racial disparity in obesity: A mediation analysis considering geo-coded environmental factors. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, 21, 13-23. doi:10.1016/j.sste.2017.02.001        This article looks into the case of disparity in obesity rates in the US where black people are more obese than white people.   The author studies individual behavior and environmental risk factors causing obesity using multivariate analysis.   Lack of access to grocery stores (for healthy food options) was cited as part of the causes of the disparity        This article displays a sociological perspective since it incorporates different social dynamics including race, income, environmental factors, and individual behavior and how these interplay and result in higher obesity risk in some individuals compared to others.    The concepts in this article directly parallel the social problem in question. This is given the focus on factors that define low socioeconomic communities such as high sugar intake in food due to lack of options, and how this puts them at a disparate risk of obesity.
Article 3 Piontak, J. R., & Schulman, M. D. (2016). School Context Matters: The Impacts of Concentrated Poverty and Racial Segregation on Childhood Obesity*. Journal of School Health, 86(12), 864-872.        The authors in this article tackle the issue of governance and how it defines the socioeconomic status of a city, for instance, including the resultant impacts such as obesity.   The focus is on poverty and racial segregation – due to government and politics – and how this cause obesity in children.   The findings were that children of color had a 3% higher risk of obesity than white children due to concentrated poverty and racial segregation in their schools.    The article offers a political science perspective since it bases its segregation and poverty concentration argument on governance and policies that systematically place schools where majority of the children are of color at a disadvantage.   The article also shows how political decisions lead to less money and fewer food resources in places with high concentration of poverty.    The findings in this article are imperative in discussing how low socioeconomic status denies individuals access to healthy food options hence causing obesity.   It also introduces the dynamic of politics and governance as an element that influence what food resources or money that certain communities can access.
Article 4 Powell, D. (2016). Governing the (un)healthy child-consumer in the age of the childhood obesity crisis. Sport, Education and Society, 23(4), 297-310.      Powell (2016) in his article addresses the governance issues and politics around children as consumers of unhealthy goods and how this leads to obesity.   The article draws on the case of food and drink corporations and how they govern consumption patterns among school-going children by posing as solutions to a problem they created in the first place.   The findings show that through sponsorships, turning children into marketers, and product placement, these firms gain favor and manage to turn children into life-long consumers.    This article by Powell (2016) falls under the political science perspective of the social problem given that it centers on governance of consumers by corporations.   The article portrays a power dynamic between corporations and consumers and how ‘consumption anxiety’ faced by these corporations is solved through ‘manipulation’ of the less powerful consumer groups (children and teachers).    This article will be critical in discussing the role of power dynamics between communities with low socioeconomic status, consumer brands at their disposal, and governance policies affecting their consumption patterns.   I believe the article will support the case of lack of access as a concept that can be manipulated to the benefit of consumer brands – and other parties – at the expense of disadvantaged communities.
Annotated bibliography analysis (Disciplinary Personas: Sociological and Political Science)

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