Analysis of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchases by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participants
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Date
2016-01-01
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Program
Sociology, Applied
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This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.edu
Distribution Rights granted to UMBC by the author.
Distribution Rights granted to UMBC by the author.
Abstract
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides millions of low-income households with much needed supplemental income to purchase food. Under current rules, SNAP allows the majority of food products, including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), to be purchased using SNAP benefits. However, SSB consumption is linked to obesity, diabetes, and other negative health outcomes. Previous research shows that low-income households consume more SSBs than higher income households. Research findings comparing SSB consumption and acquisition of SNAP participants and non-SNAP participants have been mixed. The current study examines differences in expenditures on SSBs among three groups: SNAP households using their SNAP benefits for SSP purchases, SNAP households not using their SNAP benefits, and non-SNAP households. The top ten beverage purchases were compared among the three types of households. SSBs made up the majority of purchases for SNAP households using and not using their SNAP benefits. The study also compares the two types of SNAP households directly, using data of point-of-sale (POS) beverage transactions. The data set includes transactions at various venues from nearly 26.5 million households captured from January 1 through December 31, 2011 across 32 states. Two sample t-tests were conducted to explore the differences in SSB acquisition across household and store level characteristics. Results show that SSB purchases differed significantly between the two types of SNAP household. Average SSB expenditures of SNAP households using SNAP benefits were statistically significantly higher than the average non-benefit transactions of SNAP households. This pattern remained the same when taking store location in various regions of the country, urbanicity, and high poverty areas into account. In addition, while the pattern held for poverty households, no difference in expenditures was found between non-poverty SNAP households. The differences between households were also not statistically significant when the age of head of household is over 45 and when the presence of children was included. Policies that increase access to healthy food and incentivize the purchase of healthy foods and nutritional education are needed to reduce SSB consumption in the US regardless of SNAP status.