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.

项目总结 补充营养援助计划(SNAP)是针对低收入者的最大粮食安全计划 为近4200万人(八分之一)提供购买食品杂货的经济福利。 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 紧急拨款(即补充福利)，以加强粮食安全，以响应新冠肺炎倡议 并确保参与者能够负担得起健康的饮食。所有这些紧急救济金都已到期 据估计，这项政策将使每个家庭的福利平均减少175美元， 下降了约33%。SNAP紧急拨款的突然终止是有史以来最大的一次普遍削减 国民健康保险计划中的营养不良对家庭的食品购买和随后的健康可能会产生重大影响。 然而，到目前为止，这一点还没有得到调查。这项研究将通过评估 SNAP紧急配给到期对参与者整体食品购买质量的影响 历史上服务不足的群体，食物获取更差，大流行前与营养相关的慢性疾病不平等 疾病，以及同时存在的经济、社会、社区和零售因素。我们将使用混合的- 方法将家庭购买的自然实验与定性访谈相结合 Snap参与者和那些在更大的食物系统中工作的人。在目标1中，我们将分析纵向、忠诚度- 东北一家大型连锁超市的44万名客户的关联销售数据，这些客户从 2021年11月-2023年2月(SNAP紧急拨款结束前16个月)。我们将使用 一种估计SNAP结束效果的准实验方法--受控中断时间序列(CITS 2023年4月至2024年3月(12个月后)多项食品采购质量指数应急拨款 分配结束)在SNAP参与户(干预)与非参与户之间 (控制)。在目标2中，我们将招募2,500名在该连锁店购物的低收入购物者，他们的 购买可以通过忠诚度号码来识别。我们将通过在线调查和使用评估家庭层面的数据 CITS将研究SNAP紧急拨款结束与超市食品购买之间的关系 由乡村、种族/民族和经济稳定性决定的质量。在目标3中，我们将探索个人层面的因素(例如， 使用其他辅助计划、烹饪规范、食物偏好)进行半结构化定性 对来自AIM 2队列的45-75名参与者进行了采访，他们参加了SNAP，并代表农村、黑人、 研究人群中的西班牙裔人口部分。我们将探索系统层面的因素(例如，食物 可用性、供应链、大流行时代SNAP政策推出)，通过采访SNAP代表 执行机构、超市零售商和每个感兴趣社区内的食品储藏室。 这项研究将为SNAP的这一重大变化的营养影响提供及时、严格的证据 好处，这将有助于政策制定者帮助指导未来的计划变化。