My research topic examines the social, economical, and medical effects of food deserts in low-income communities across the United States. I found a related article to my research question in the Rural Sociological Society Journal. The article, titled Food Deserts and Overweight Schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania by Kai A. Kraft, Eric B. Jensen, and C. Clare Hinrichs, utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to identify food desert areas in Pennsylvania. Additionally, it analyzes student body index (BMI) data with census and school-district data to determine the extent to which the percentage of a school district’s population resides within a food desert is positively associated with increased incidence of obesity among students within the district. The type of data the researchers used was demographical and organizational. The data gathering methods they used included gathering information from census bureaus such as the Missouri Census Data Center, National Center for Education Statistics, the BMI data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and from the U.S. Census Bureau. In the first stage, they compared demographic, household, and community characteristics across all rural school districts in Pennsylvania based on food-desert status. The next analysis compared school-district characteristics — including weight status of students — by whether or not the school is located near a food desert. The third stage of the analysis used a multivariate approach to model the relationship between the rates of children overweight and the percentage of a school’s district’s population residing within a food-desert area. By utilizing GIS mapping methods, the researchers were clearly able to see on a map the school districts in comparison with food deserts. By using the demographic census data they were able to see the economic status of people who lived in close range to the food districts. Lastly by using BMI information, they were able to find a correlation between obesity in children, low-income status, and food deserts.

Schafft, Kai A., Eric B. Jensen, and C. Clare Hinrichs. Food Deserts and Overweight Schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania. Rural Sociology 74, no. 2 (2009): 153-77. doi:10.1111/j.1549-0831.2009.tb00387.x.