Designed to demonstrate the connection between food accessibility, poverty, and health, Healthline.com's diabetes data visualization displays county-level information obtained from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and U.S. Census data.
Viewers can manipulate the filters on the map to display average household income, the number of people with no car living more than one mile from the nearest grocery store, the percentage of adults diagnosed with diabetes, and the poverty rate for individual counties nationwide. Furthermore, viewers can narrow their focus to those counties with multiple customized factors, such as a poverty rate greater than 20% and a diabetes rate greater than 12%.
Not surprisingly, many of the counties with the least favorable numbers for poverty also show up in the worst categories for food deserts and diabetes rates. Although the map only demonstrates the statistical associations among poverty, food accessibility, and health, the causal connection is not a difficult leap.
Scientific research uncovers connections between diet and diabetes on a nearly daily basis, and the availability and affordability of nutritious food is clearly a limiting factor in achieving an optimal diet for many Kentuckians.
Despite their interdependence, food deserts and poverty are not the entire story behind the rise in diabetes rates. People get food they can access and afford, but getting food is not the only goal – eating high-quality food is essential to promoting wellness and preventing obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
Until Kentucky can find a solution to the multitude of factors causing the unhappy splash of red in its map of counties, however, the relationship between poverty and poor health is likely to remain. Indeed, the map may soon become a sea of red, overcoming additional counties with a wave of veritable food deserts and insulin resistance.
To keep the "crimson tide" from covering the rest of Kentucky, join the fight to promote healthy eating and lifelong wellness. Get involved with the Kentucky Diabetes Network or the Partnership for a Fit Kentucky, and make sure that the increase in food deserts and diabetes is one trend that stops now.
