Recent paternal incarceration, defined as incarceration in the past 2 years, is associated with an increased likelihood of food insecurity among 5-year-old children, but only among children living with their biological fathers prior to his incarceration. These associations cannot be explained by the mechanisms considered, including post-incarceration changes in economic well-being, parental relationships, maternal parenting, and maternal health.
A review of the current literature revealed that an adverse association between food insecurity and dietary patterns is well supported. The association between food insecurity and obesity is strongest for women, with results for men and children being mixed.
In the Mid-Ohio Valley Region of West Virginia, food insecure women in the West Virginia WIC program had a greater risk of depression, higher food pantry use, lower rates of reliable transportation to obtain food, and lower use of extra methods to obtain food such as hunting and fishing in comparison to their food secure counterparts in the WIC program. Women who did not participate in the West Virginia WIC FMNP program had lower produce intake related behaviors, including perceived control, enabling domain, and self-efficacy than those that did.
Recently hospitalized low-income children and girls had significantly greater odds of living in food insecure households. Of potentially eligible hospitalized children, 26.9% had not received Women, Infants, and Children benefits and 31.0% had not received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in the past year.
Climatic changes, although a worldwide phenomena, clearly have unequal and pernicious impacts, that in this case created significant challenges for these farm-worker families.
Under nonparametric assumptions, we find that WIC reduces the prevalence of child food insecurity by at least 3.6 percentage points (20%).
The point estimates show that the associations are stronger as measured by the new supplemental measure of income-to-needs ratio than when estimated through the official measure. Statistical tests reject the hypothesis that poor households’ odds of experiencing low food security are the same whether the SPM or OPM measure is used; but the tests do not reject the hypothesis when very low food security is the outcome.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation was not associated with improved household food security over 3 months. Compared with non-participants, SNAP participants increased refined grain intake by 1.1 serving/d , from baseline to follow-up. No associations were observed with other foods, nutrients, or dietary quality.
This project demonstrates how research and sharing of best practices are essential steps to the policymaking process and how such work can unite the health and agriculture communities to foster improvements in access to healthy food. The NPT was not involved in the drafting of specific legislation; however, communications with key stakeholders and policymakers inspired the political champion to prioritize farm-to-table policies during the legislative session. The NPT encourages others to disseminate findings from policy analyses to policymakers.
Results suggest that residential moves and declines in maternal or child health are associated with transitioning into food insecurity, whereas increases in the number of adults in the household are associated with exits from food insecurity. Changes in income and maternal depression are associated with both entrances and exits.
