Our findings have two important implications. First, our results
support the claim of previous studies that GIS-based and perceived
data on fast-food availability might not measure the same
construct and should be differentiated. Even though our results did
not reach statistical significance, our point estimates clearly showed
a positive relationship between fast-food availability and consumption
when using perception data and an inverse relation when using
GIS-based data. Incorporating the entire subjective impression of
the environment, it is thus reasonable that subjective measures might
better reflect the actual influence of fast-food presence. Second, in
consideration of our results and the conflicting findings of previous
research, we posit that a person’s role as the primary food
shopper of the household could be crucial for both that person’s
perception of fast-food availability and the impact of fast-food presence
on his or her food shopping behavior. Persons responsible for
food shopping for a household may have an increased awareness
of neighborhood fast-food availability. This assumption is supported
by the fact that 80% of participants in our study accurately
perceived the presence of a fast-food restaurant within 1 mile of
their home (Kappa = 0.5–0.61) (Barnes et al., revision in review). It
is intriguing to speculate that such people would also tend to buy
more food for preparation at home and thus be less influenced by
fast-food availability. This may be one explanation for the lack of
association between perceived or GIS-based fast-food availability
and fast-food consumption. Additional evidence for this line of reasoning
comes from one other study that demonstrated a positive
association between fast-food availability among men only, who are
not typically the primary food shoppers of the household (Boone-
Heinonen et al., 2011).