Associations among Select State Policies and the Nutritional Quality of Household Packaged Food Purchases in the U.S. from 2008 through 2017

Citation

Lacko, Allison M.; Guilkey, David K.; Popkin, Barry M.; & Ng, Shu Wen (2022). Associations among Select State Policies and the Nutritional Quality of Household Packaged Food Purchases in the U.S. from 2008 through 2017. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 122(4), 731-44.e32. PMCID: PMC8940616

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Policy interventions are important public health tools because they can reach large numbers of people. State context has been associated with health outcomes, yet few studies have examined the extent to which state-level policies are associated with dietary quality.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether state policies are associated with the nutritional quality of household packaged food purchases (PFPs).
DESIGN: This observational study used data from Nielsen Homescan, an open-cohort household panel where participants track purchases, and a combination of state-level food and social safety net policy variables from 2008-2017.
PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: This study included 615,634 household-year observations in the U.S. from 2008-2017. Household-year observations were excluded if a household did not make a minimum number of purchases and if they had incorrect geographic information. The final analytic sample was 611,719 household-years.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Study outcomes included a set of nutritional measures of public health interest, including nutrients of concern (sugar, saturated fat, sodium) and calories from specific food groups (fruits, non-starchy vegetables, processed meats, mixed dishes, sugar-sweetened beverages and desserts and snacks).
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: This study used multilevel generalized linear models with state fixed effects on three samples: all households, only households with low income, and only households with low educational attainment.
RESULTS: Few significant associations were found between Healthy Food Retail policies and the nutritional quality of purchases, and mixed associations were found between social safety net policies and lower or higher quality PFPs.
CONCLUSIONS: Little evidence was found that state policy context in 2008-2017 was associated with the quality of PFPs. However, variation in state policies is increasing over time, warranting future research into the relationship between these policies, the quality of PFPs, and the rest of the diet.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2021.09.017

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2022

Journal Title

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Author(s)

Lacko, Allison M.
Guilkey, David K.
Popkin, Barry M.
Ng, Shu Wen

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC8940616

Data Set/Study

Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panels

Continent/Country

United States of America

State

Nonspecific

ORCiD

Popkin - 0000-0001-9495-9324
Ng - 0000-0003-0582-110X
Lacko - 0000-0001-7475-126X