## 4 Discussion
Future interventions should be multifaceted and tailored to community needs. Although further research is needed, this study highlights the necessity of integrating public health with urban planning to create healthier, food-resilient urban environments. The evidence presented underscores the importance of coordinated efforts between policymakers to advance these critical issues. Economic constraints are a significant barrier to healthy eating [27; 28], as highlighted in the introduction. The study's findings that areas with high food desert probability correlate with higher cardiovascular health disease rates may support the notion that economic factors heavily influence dietary choices. The perception of cost as a barrier to healthy eating, especially among the elderly, underscores the need for policies that make nutritious foods more affordable and accessible. Nevertheless, a different study on this matter should confirm this assumption. Literature presented previously showed that a substantial proportion of elderly Chileans are food secure but still consume diets needing improvement [22]. This dichotomy highlights the complex interplay between food availability, economic capacity, and dietary quality. The study advances this understanding by providing spatial evidence that economic constraints coupled with poor food environments significantly impact health outcomes. This research advances knowledge by providing robust spatial analysis of the relationship between food deserts and cardiovascular health, emphasizing the importance of localized interventions. The use of MGWR allows for a nuanced understanding of how these relationships vary across different neighborhoods, offering insights that traditional global regression models cannot provide. Future research should explore temporal dynamics to complement the spatial analysis presented here. Understanding how these relationships evolve over time could provide deeper insights into the long-term impacts of food environments on health. For example, assessing the shift from a food desert to a food oasis (areas with the presence of healthy food commerce) over time could reveal how these new dynamics influence people's health status by providing a greater supply of healthy foods (e.g., decreased incidence of cardiovascular diseases), improved mental and physical health, and overall quality of life. Conversely, in the worst-case scenario, if the food desert environment remains unchanged, prolonged exposure could further impact people's health. For instance, individuals with poorer diet quality have been reported to have mental health problems [41; 42]. Additionally, incorporating other health determinants such as physical activity, healthcare access, and social support networks can offer a more comprehensive view of the factors influencing cardiovascular health. However, to produce this type of study at the census block scale, it would be necessary to carry out a different kind of survey with a level of precision comparable to what has been done for this study, at least concerning the independent variables to be measured. In the case of Chile, information at this scale remains scarce.