The Relationship of Spatio-temporal Patterns of Mortality of Diseases Associated with Malnutrition and Food Establishments in Mexico

This study explores the relationship between the spatio-temporal behavior of mortality due to multiple causes associated with several diseases and the physical availability of food using data for 2010–2020 at the municipality level in Mexico. For each disease, national databases were collected and standardized, and then we performed SATSCAN temporal and FleXScan spatial cluster analyses. With the Kruskal-Wallis test we analyze the differences between municipalities with high relative risk of mortality and their relationship with food retail units and food establishments. We found statistically significant relationships between clusters by disease and the physical availability of food per hundred thousand inhabitants. The main pattern is a higher average density of convenience stores, supermarkets, fast food chains and franchises, and Mexican snack restaurants in high-risk municipalities, while a higher density of grocery stores and inns, cheap kitchens, and menu restaurants exists in the municipalities with low risk. The density of convenience stores, fast food chains and franchises, and Mexican snack restaurants plays a very important role in mortality behavior, so there should be measures to regulate them and encourage and protect convenience stores, grocery stores, and local food preparation units.