Food Assistance Clinical Trial
Official title:
Designing a Food Benefit Program to Optimize Diet Quality for Obesity Prevention
This highly innovative experimental trial is designed to examine the independent and joint effects of prohibiting the use of SNAP-like benefits to purchase foods high in discretionary calories and offering an incentive to encourage the purchase of more healthful foods.
More than 1 in 10 Americans participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), a Federal food and nutrition program administered by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA). SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides funds to
low-income families for the purchase of food. Benefits are provided on an electronic benefits
transfer (EBT) card that is used like an debit card at stores.
In recent years there has been growing recognition that SNAP participants are
disproportionately obese, with poor diet contributing to this disparity. In response, there
is great interest in considering ways in which SNAP may better meet its objective to help
people and families buy the food they need for good health.
Modifications to SNAP currently under evaluation involve offering incentives to encourage
participants to purchase more nutritious food items. There is concern, however, that this
strategy alone may be of limited usefulness in improving the nutritional quality of the diet
for obesity prevention because incentivizing the purchase of more nutritious foods does not
necessarily reduce the purchase of less nutritious foods (substitution effect may not occur)
and may even increase the total calories purchased.
An alternative strategy that has been extensively discussed by public health advocates and
policy makers in recent years is prohibiting the purchase of less nutritious food items with
SNAP benefits. Commonly consumed foods that are high in discretionary calories (defined as
calories from solid fats, alcohol, and added sugars) are prime targets for exclusion because
SNAP participants consume far more energy from discretionary calories (43%) than recommended.
This strategy may be particularly effective if implemented in conjunction with incentives for
the purchase of more nutritious foods.
No studies have been conducted to evaluate whether prohibiting the purchase of foods high in
discretionary calories with SNAP benefits may improve diet quality and reduce risk of
obesity. Likewise research is lacking on the effect of effect of pairing restrictions with
incentives. Thus, we propose to pilot a highly innovative experimental trial designed to
examine the independent and joint effects of prohibiting the use of SNAP benefits to purchase
foods high in discretionary calories and offering an incentive to encourage the purchase of
more healthful foods. Key indicators of feasibility will include recruitment and retention
(are targeted number of participants recruited and retained at a high rate?); fidelity of the
intervention (are compliance measures successfully collected and do they indicate close
compliance with experimental condition assignment?); and completeness of baseline and
follow-up data.
Using study data, analyses will be conducted to evaluate the independent and joint effects of
prohibiting the use of SNAP benefits to purchase foods high in discretionary calories and
offering an incentive to encourage the purchase of more nutritious foods.
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| Status | Clinical Trial | Phase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminated |
NCT04159038 -
Integrating WIC With Early Childhood Systems of Developmental Care
|
N/A |