Impact of the expiration of temporary pandemic SNAP benefits on the healthfulness of supermarket food purchases

临时大流行 SNAP 福利到期对超市食品采购健康性的影响

• 批准号: 10835393
• 负责人: Joshua Petimar
• 金额: $ 84.85万
• 依托单位: HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-21 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10835393
• 关键词: Affect; Black race; COVID-19 pandemic; Characteristics; Chronic Disease; Communities; Data; Economics; Emergency Situation; Employment; Enrollment; Ensure; Ethnic Origin; Food; Food Access; Food Preferences; Future; Health; Health Food; Hispanic; Household; Individual; Inequity; Interruption; Intervention; Interview; Link; Low Income Population; Low income; Measures; Methods; Natural experiment; Not Hispanic or Latino; Nutritional; Participant; Pattern; Persons; Policies; Policy Maker; Population; Poverty; Price; Process; Quasi-experiment; Race; Research; Research Design; Rural; Sales; Series; Source; Stress; Structure; Supermarket; Surveys; System; Time; Underserved Population; Unemployment; cohort; cooking; coping; economic disparity; experience; expiration; food security; good diet; health disparity; health disparity populations; indexing; interest; large datasets; longitudinal analysis; nutrition; pandemic disease; pre-pandemic; programs; response; rural residence; rurality; social; study population; supply chain; underserved community

PROJECT SUMMARY The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest food security program for lower-income households in the U.S., providing financial benefits for grocery purchases to nearly 42 million people (1 in 8). SNAP benefit amounts increased substantially starting in March 2020, most of which was driven by temporary emergency allotments (i.e., supplemental benefits), to bolster food security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure participants could afford a healthy diet. These emergency benefits expired across all states in March 2023, a policy that is estimated to have reduced benefits by an average of $175 per household, a ~33% decline. The sudden end of SNAP emergency allotments represents the largest-ever universal reduction in SNAP benefits and could have a major impact on households’ food purchases and their subsequent health. However, this has not been investigated to date. This study will make a significant contribution by evaluating the impact of the expiration of SNAP emergency allotments on participants’ food purchase quality overall, among historically underserved groups with worse food access and pre-pandemic inequities in nutrition-related chronic disease, and in the context of concurrent economic, social, community, and retail factors. We will use a mixed- methods approach that combines a natural experiment of household purchases with qualitative interviews of SNAP participants and those working in the larger food system. In Aim 1, we will analyze longitudinal, loyalty- linked sales data on >440,000 customers of a large Northeast supermarket chain who made purchases from November 2021-February 2023 (16 months before the end of SNAP emergency allotments). We will use controlled interrupted time series (CITS), a quasi-experimental method, to estimate the effect of the end of SNAP emergency allotments on several indices of food purchase quality from April 2023-March 2024 (12 months after the end of allotments) among SNAP-participating households (intervention) vs. non-participating households (control). In Aim 2, we will enroll a cohort of 2,500 lower-income shoppers who shop at the chain and whose purchases can be identified by loyalty number. We will assess household-level data via online surveys and use CITS to examine associations between the end of SNAP emergency allotments and supermarket food purchase quality by rurality, race/ethnicity, and economic stability. In Aim 3, we will explore individual-level factors (e.g., use of other assistance programs, cooking norms, food preferences) by conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews among 45-75 participants from the cohort in Aim 2 who participate in SNAP and represent rural, Black, and Hispanic demographic segments of the study population. We will explore system-level factors (e.g., food availability, supply chains, pandemic era SNAP policy rollout) via interviews with representatives from SNAP implementing agencies, supermarket retailers, and food pantries from within each of the communities of interest. This research will generate timely, rigorous evidence on the nutritional impact of this substantial change to SNAP benefits, which will be useful to policymakers to help guide future program changes.

项目摘要 补充营养援助计划（SNAP）是最大的低收入食品安全计划。 美国的家庭，为近4200万人（八分之一）购买杂货提供经济利益。 从2020年3月开始，SNAP福利金额大幅增加，其中大部分是由临时的 紧急分配（即，补充福利），以加强粮食安全，应对COVID-19 这是一个很好的方法，以确保参与者能够负担得起健康的饮食。这些紧急福利在所有 2023年3月，该政策估计将使每个家庭的福利平均减少175美元， 下降了33%。SNAP紧急拨款的突然结束代表着有史以来最大的普遍减少 在SNAP中，这将带来好处，并可能对家庭的食品购买及其随后的健康产生重大影响。 然而，迄今尚未对此进行调查。这项研究将通过评估 SNAP紧急拨款到期对参与者整体食品购买质量的影响， 历史上得不到充分服务的群体，他们的食物供应情况更差， 疾病，并在并发的经济，社会，社区和零售因素的背景下。我们将使用混合- 方法的方法，结合了家庭购买的自然实验与定性访谈， SNAP参与者和那些在更大的食品系统中工作的人。在目标1中，我们将分析纵向，忠诚度- 链接的销售数据> 440，000客户的大型东北连锁超市谁作出购买从 2021年11月至2023年2月（SNAP紧急拨款结束前16个月）。我们将使用 受控中断时间序列（CITS），一种准实验方法，用于估计SNAP结束的影响 从2023年4月至2024年3月（12个月后）的几项粮食采购质量指数的紧急拨款 参与SNAP的家庭（干预）与不参与SNAP的家庭之间的分配结束） （对照）。在目标2中，我们将招募2,500名在连锁店购物的低收入购物者， 购买可以通过忠诚度号码来识别。我们将通过在线调查评估家庭层面的数据， CITS将研究SNAP紧急分配结束与超市食品购买之间的关联 质量由农村，种族/民族，和经济稳定。在目标3中，我们将探讨个人层面的因素（例如， 使用其他援助计划，烹饪规范，食物偏好），通过进行半结构化的定性 对来自Aim 2队列的45-75名参与者进行了访谈，他们参加了SNAP，代表了农村，黑人， 和西班牙裔人口统计学部分的研究人群。我们将探讨系统级因素（例如，食品 可用性、供应链、大流行时期SNAP政策推出），通过采访SNAP代表 执行机构、超市零售商和食品储藏室。 这项研究将产生及时的，严格的证据，这一重大变化的营养影响SNAP 这将有助于政策制定者帮助指导未来的计划变化。