Resource Type: Journal Article

Upstream interventions in clinical settings focused on nutrition to prevent obesity during the first 1,000 days: A scoping review

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Nutritional exposures during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life influence growth and risk for obesity. Upstream interventions that involve policy, systems, and/or environmental approaches may support equitable nutrition and healthy growth early in life. Yet little is known about application of these interventions in clinical settings. This scoping review characterized the More

Food Insecurity-Related Stigma Among Adults in the United States: A Scoping Review

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This review aimed to characterize individual- and structural-level stigma associated with government (ie, SNAP, WIC) and emergency food program (ie, food banks, pantries, cupboards, soup kitchens) utilization in the US. 5 databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts) were searched in June 2024. The review included peer-reviewed articles (January 2004 – June 2024), More

Lived Experiences of Families Navigating Safety Net Expansions and Retractions During the Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

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This study aimed to understand the experiences of families with low income in California with pandemic safety net support expansions and retractions, including barriers to program access. Using open-ended questions, we explored the self-reported experiences of pandemic-era safety net expansions and expirations between January and June 2023 among a group of caregivers of young children More

The association between food benefit online ordering and redemptions: evidence from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

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This study aimed to examine how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) online food benefit ordering could influence WIC benefit redemptions, comparing the average redemption rates between online ordering early adopters and non-adopters among WIC customers before and after implementing WIC online ordering. A propensity score-weighted difference-in-difference model was used More

Diet Quality and Weight Status are Predicted by Federal Nutrition Assistance Program Participation, Health, and Demographics

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This study investigated whether demographic, social, and economic determinants of health, including length of time participating in safety net programs, are associated with diet quality and weight status in early childhood. Using the WIC infant and toddler feeding practices study-2, classification and regression tree identified the sequence of binary splits that best differentiated the sample More

Universal Free School Meal Policies and Participation in the US National School Meal Programs

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This study aimed to examine the impact of federal- and state-level Universal Free School Meal (UFSM) policies and related policies on National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This comparative effectiveness research study used a natural experiment created by the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze More

State Earned Income Tax Credit and Food Security: Results Among Economically At-Risk Households With Children

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the state Earned Income Tax Credit on food insecurity among economically at-risk U.S. households with children and explore differential effects across sociodemographic groups. The authors used an intent-to-treat causal inference design and household-level data from all 50 U.S. states available from the Current Population More

Take-up of the 2021 child tax credit expansion among disadvantaged households in California: Continuing barriers to health equity

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In 2021 Congress expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC), one of the largest US economic supports for working families with proven benefits for health. Information on CTC take-up among eligible families is lacking. Understanding barriers to anti-poverty programs is an urgent policy issue, as low take-up is an established barrier to health equity. Among a More

WIC Service Use, Benefit Redemption, and Continued Participation among Participants in California

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The objectives of this study were to describe WIC service utilization patterns (in-person, telephone, video conference, interactive texting, online individual education, online group education) and assess associations of service utilization with WIC benefit redemption and continued participation. Study data include survey and administrative data from households with a WIC-participating child aged 1 to 4 years More