Kelly Ross

This paper is a study of spatial lifestyle correlates of type II Diabetes in Toronto. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how various spatial concepts and approaches can be used to increase understanding, create informed decisions and develop policy that relates to Type II Diabetes and lifestyle factors. The analysis uses Type II Diabetes as the health issue, and the known risk factors as the independent variables for analysis in a spatial context. Historically, there is a q ualitative relationship between Type II Diabetes and a number of lifestyle risk factors. This paper aims to show a quantitative relationship due to access and availability of these risk factors. The risk factors examined include availability and access associated with obesity to grocery stores, major chain grocery stores, fast food, convenience stores, parks and recreation facilities. The availability of these factors was measured through the count of the number facilities or stores per thousand people for every City of Toronto designated neighbourhood. The accessibility was measured using a network analysis with impedance values for both driving travel time and transit/walking travel time. A global and local spatial autocorrelation was completed to determine the statistically significant patterns and relationships between Type II Diabetes and these factors. There were a number of local areas that had relationships with high and low Diabetes prevalence rates and the lifestyle factors. They were located in the North-East (high rates), North-West (high rates) and Central (low rates) areas of the city.