PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Community violence is a major public health concern in the U.S. that disproportionately affects communities with
predominately low-income and African American residents. Previous research has linked violent crime (i.e.,
murder, rape, aggravated assault, and armed robbery) at the community level to a variety of adverse health
behaviors and health outcomes including substance abuse, mental illness, and physical inactivity. To date, very
little research has been conducted on the nutritional consequences of community violence at the community or
individual levels. As a result, there is limited understanding of how community violence affects the retail food
environment and the diet-related behaviors of individuals and families. This K01 project seeks to fill this void in
knowledge by examining community violence and its influence on food retail, food purchasing behavior, and
dietary intake in low-income African American communities located in Chicago, IL. A mixed-methods research
approach will be utilized to accomplish the following three research aims: 1) assess perceptions of how
community violence has affected the business of local food retailers by conducting a series of semi-structured
in-depth interviews with owners & managers of food retail businesses located in low-income African American
communities in Chicago with a high violent crime rate, 2) evaluate longitudinal associations between community-
level racial and socioeconomic characteristics, violent crime rates, and the availability and density of food
retailers by analyzing 10 years of data collected by the City of Chicago (2008-2018), and 3) examine associations
between exposure to community violence, food purchasing behavior, and dietary intake by surveying low-income
African American adults who reside in a predominately low-income African American community in Chicago with
a high violent crime rate. This research will greatly increase our understanding of how violence affects community
nutrition. Furthermore, it will provide valuable information to researchers, policymakers, and public health
agencies on the role of community violence in creating nutrition-related health inequities at the community and
individual levels. Findings from this K01 project will inform a future R01 proposal that will further explore
relationships between community violence, food retail, food purchasing behavior, and dietary intake.
