Food security and a healthful diet are important factors in cancer prevention and economic stability. Food insecurity is associated with lower dietary quality, obesity, and poor health outcomes including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer in both adults in children. Likewise, poor diet is associated with obesity and chronic disease. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program designed with an aim to alleviate food insecurity and improve the diet of those most at risk for an inability to afford sufficient, healthy food. The proposed research aims to understand how the dollar amount of SNAP benefits change recipients? ability to afford and consume a sufficient and healthful diet across the SNAP benefit month, and to understand which families are most vulnerable and most affected by benefit levels. There are three specific aims of this research: (1) to evaluate the impact of an additional SNAP benefit dollar on ability to purchase sufficient, healthy food across the monthly SNAP benefit cycle, including examining the effect on caloric intake and diet components; (2) to identify the subgroups most impacted by SNAP benefit dollar amount and the monthly SNAP benefit cycle, including by race/ethnicity, female-headed households, and diagnosis of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity; and (3) to compare the effects of an additional SNAP benefit dollar on the monthly SNAP benefit cycle found using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-12 collection wave and the Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey. Methods for primary studies include fixed effects and differences-in-differences frameworks. This research is, to my knowledge, the first to examine the effects of the SNAP benefit amount in the context of both an increase and a decrease in dollar amount due to the same legislation, as well as the first to assess the effects of benefit amount across the month. These questions are key for policy makers and non-profits when targeting cancer prevention efforts. Findings have the potential to inform decisions to better support low-income families in maintaining a sufficient, healthy diet for prevention of chronic disease and reducing cancer risk.
Food security and a healthful diet are important factors in cancer prevention and economic stability. The proposed research examines the effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program?s household benefit dollar amounts on food insecurity and diet quality across the month. Findings could help policymakers make decisions to better support low-income families in maintaining a sufficient, healthy diet and reducing cancer risk.
