Federal Nutrition Program Revisions Impact Low-income Households’ Food Purchases

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) required major revisions to food packages in 2009. This study examines associations between WIC revisions and nutritional profiles of packaged food purchases from 2008 to 2014 among 4,537 low-income households with preschoolers in the U.S. using Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel data. Among WIC households, More

A Supermarket Double-Dollar Incentive Program Increases Purchases of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Among Low Income Families With Children: The Healthy Double Study

This pilot study was conducted to determine whether a supermarket double-dollar fruit and vegetable (F&V) incentive increases F&V purchases among low-income families. The study was carried out in a supermarket in a low-income rural Maine community. The participants were low-income and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) supermarket customers. The participants received a same-day coupon at More

Pricing Strategies to Encourage Availability, Purchase, and Consumption of Healthy Foods and Beverages: A Systematic Review

This review looks at recently published studies (2000-2016) conducted in real-world settings on how changes in food prices can affect access, purchasing, and consumption of foods, especially healthy foods and beverages. The studies focused on individuals or stores in middle- and high-income countries, and food pricing alone or in combination with other strategies (e.g. food More

Deal or No Deal? The Prevalence and Nutritional Quality of Price Promotions Among U.S. Food and Beverage Purchases

This study examines trends in the prevalence of price promotions among packaged food and beverage purchases, differences in prevalence by household race/ethnicity or income, and the association between price promotions and the nutritional profile of purchases. The cross-sectional study uses a dataset of 90 million purchases from 38,744 (2008) to 45,042 (2012) U.S. households in More

Examining Barriers and Facilitators to Delivering SNAP-Education (SNAP-Ed) Programming in Rural Communities

This project will examine the barriers and facilitators to delivering SNAP-Ed programming in rural communities with a focus on policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. The goals of this project are: 1) to identify the types of SNAP-Ed programming currently being implemented in rural communities, with a focus on PSE changes; 2) to identify barriers More

Measuring Micro-Level Effects of a New Supermarket: Do Residents Within 0.5 Mile Have Improved Dietary Behaviors?

This study aimed to examine whether a newly opened supermarket in the Bronx, NY, changed household food availability and consumption of healthy and unhealthy food items among families who lived within half a mile of the new supermarket. Participants were recruited through street intercept surveys, with a subset of respondents later completing a 24-hour dietary More

Stress in Early Life and Childhood Obesity Risk

The association between stress in early life and obesity and overweight in adulthood is well established. There is also increasing evidence of a link between stress exposure in childhood (or in utero) and child and adolescent obesity. Major sources of early life stress include adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse), poverty, food insecurity, and poor relationships More

Studying the Effectiveness of an Intervention to Increase Water Access and Appeal for Underserved Populations Outside School Settings

In June 2016, the Philadelphia City Council passed a 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Given the tax, the climate for promoting water and discouraging SSB consumption in Philadelphia is ideal for testing interventions that may increase water consumption. Specific aims of this study are to: l) determine the effectiveness of a More