Disparities in spatio-temporal accessibility to fresh foods in Shanghai, China

Disparities in fresh food accessibility are an important topic in health geography. Existing studies focus on the spatial component of food accessibility and are mostly conducted in North America and Europe. This study addresses both the spatial and temporal dimensions of food accessibility and investigates the disparities in fresh food accessibility in the Asian context. We examine the impacts of socioeconomic and built environment factors on spatio-temporal accessibility to supermarkets and wet markets in Shanghai. The opening hours of markets and people's daily time use patterns are considered. Both first-hand questionnaire survey data and second-hand POI and statistic data are used. We find that Shanghai's urban districts have a slightly higher density of wet markets than the suburban districts, but the latter have a much higher density of supermarkets than the former. The built environment at home and workplace is found to be more influential than socioeconomic variables in explaining disparities in fresh food accessibility. Household income, age and private car ownership are associated with fresh food accessibility. The findings of this study enrich the existing literature on food environment and food accessibility and may help policymakers address the deficiency in fresh food accessibility.