Fast food and alcohol outlets clustered in Glasgow's most deprived areas
Researchers found the outlets were clustered in deprived areas in the city's east end such as Bridgeton, Parkhead, Shettleston and Tollcross
Last updated 8th May 2018
The most deprived areas of Glasgow have more outlets offering alcohol, fast food, tobacco and gambling than the city's more affluent areas, research shows. Using spatial cluster analysis, the Glasgow University findings showed there was a greater number of overlapping clusters of these outlets in more deprived areas.
The mapping technique used was not restricted by pre-defined boundaries and plotted the natural concentrations of these outlets across the whole city.
For all categories of outlets combined, numbers of clusters increased from the least to the most income deprived areas.
For fast food and tobacco outlet clusters, the most deprived areas had a greater number than more affluent parts, while alcohol outlets, including off-licences and pubs, clustered in the most deprived area.
Gambling, which covered bookies, lottery sales, bingo halls, casinos and slot machines, had the lowest number of clusters but the most deprived sections had the greatest number and the least deprived had none.
Researchers found the outlets were clustered in deprived areas in the city's east end such as Bridgeton, Parkhead, Shettleston and Tollcross as well as within the city centre and at shopping, office and service hubs and near busy main roads.
Laura Macdonald, lead author of the research paper, said: Our findings add to existing evidence that deprived areas have increased opportunities to access potentially health damaging and/or addictive goods or services, and provide some support for constraints on alcohol, fast food, tobacco and gambling outlets in areas subject to overprovision, such as low income neighbourhoods.
We cannot ascertain why outlets are co-located within deprived areas - it could reflect shopper convenience; or because retailers purposefully choose areas close to populations with greater demand for specific goods such as alcohol, fast food, tobacco etc, or choose areas where retail rent is lower, like disadvantaged areas.
But we hope our findings can influence interventions to tackle these unhealthy behaviours by aiding authorities to develop policies and planning regulations appropriate for these areas in greatest need, by tackling the higher numbers of 'environmental bads' within deprived areas.''
The research is published in Health & Place and was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office.