Studying the Impact on Children’s Nutrition and Health of Participation in, and How to Increase Access to, Multiple Safety-Net Programs

One in five U.S. children are eligible to participate in federal income, food, and housing support programs. These programs reduce the prevalence and intensity of poverty, but their combined effects on nutrition and health are not well understood, and participation is not maximized. The proposed research examines the incremental and combined impact of participation in More

Developing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Pictorial Health Warnings on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages to Overcome Language and Literacy Barriers

Childhood obesity is a major public health problem in the U.S. among racial and ethnic minorities, including among the growing Latino population in the U.S. One promising but understudied policy for addressing childhood obesity is requiring health warnings on the front of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) containers. Pictorial warnings in particular hold promise for overcoming language More

Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Attitudes and Consumption During the First 1000 Days of Life

This study examined the relationship between parental sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) attitudes and SSB consumption during the first 1,000 days – gestation to age 2 years. The study population consisted of 394 WIC-enrolled, Hispanic/Latino families living in northern Manhattan. Parental SSB attitudes were determined through a four question survey that used a Likert scale for responses, More

Parents’ Reports of Fast-Food Purchases for Their Children: Have They Improved?

Few research studies have examined the menu items that parents purchase for their children at fast-food restaurants or their attitudes about healthier kids’ meals. The purpose of this research was to document specific menu items that parents reported purchasing for their children at the top fast-food restaurant chains, attitudes about the restaurants, frequency of fast-food More

A National Research Agenda to Reduce Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Increase Safe Water Access and Consumption Among Zero- to Five-Year-Olds

Early childhood is a critical period for developing food preferences and dietary patterns. Despite dietary recommendations to limit or eliminate sugary drinks in early childhood, children ages 0 to 5 frequently drink these beverages. There is currently a lack of evidence on effective policy, systems, and environmental strategies to reduce sugary drink consumption and provide More

Best Practices and Innovative Solutions to Overcome Barriers to Delivering Policy, Systems and Environmental Changes in Rural Communities

This study investigated the barriers to implementing policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change initiatives within Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) programming in U.S. rural communities, as well as strategies to overcome these barriers. SNAP-Ed staff members across 15 states were surveyed and/or interviewed regarding the types nutrition-related PSE programming currently being implemented, barriers to implementation, More

A Systematic Review of Strategies to Reduce Sugar‐Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among 0‐Year to 5‐Year Olds

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption begins early and increases with age in the U.S., and there is robust evidence linking SSB consumption with negative health consequences. This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 27 studies on strategies aimed to reduce SSB consumption among 0- to 5-year-olds. Interventions took place primarily in healthcare settings, as well as preschool/daycare, More

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

Issue Brief. The Associations Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Children’s Health: An Updated Review of the Literature

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)—which include all drinks with added sugar, such as soda, fruit drinks, and sports drinks—is strongly linked to obesity and a number of other negative health consequences. This issue brief is based on a review of the literature on this topic and examines the evidence on: 1) the health impacts of More

The Associations Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Children’s Health: An Updated Review of the Literature

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)—which include all drinks with added sugar, such as soda, fruit drinks, and sports drinks—is strongly linked to obesity and a number of other negative health consequences. This research review is based on a review of the literature on this topic, published in BMC Obesity (Bleich and Vercammen 2018). It examines the More