IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i17p6037-d401190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rural SNAP Participants and Food Insecurity: How Can Communities Leverage Resources to Meet the Growing Food Insecurity Status of Rural and Low-Income Residents?

Author

Listed:
  • Emily DeWitt

    (Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Rachel Gillespie

    (Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Heather Norman-Burgdolf

    (Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Kathryn M. Cardarelli

    (College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Stacey Slone

    (Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

  • Alison Gustafson

    (Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA)

Abstract

The burden of obesity disproportionately influences poor health outcomes in rural communities in the United States. Various social and environmental factors contribute to inadequate food access and availability in rural areas, influencing dietary intakes and food insecurity rates. This study aims to identify patterns related to food insecurity and fruit and vegetable consumption within a SNAP-eligible and low-income, highly obese rural Appalachian community. A prospective cohort was implemented to identify gaps in resources addressing obesity and food insecurity challenges. SAS 9.4 software was used to examine differences in dietary intakes and shopping practices among SNAP participants. Among participants ( n = 152), most reported an annual household income less than USD 20,000 ( n = 90, 60.4%), 29.1% reported food insecurity, and 39.5% reported receiving SNAP benefits within the last month. The overall mean FV intake was 3.46 daily servings (95% CI: 3.06–3.91) among all participants. SNAP participation was associated with food insecurity ( p = 0.007) and those participating in SNAP were two times more likely to report being food insecure (OR = 2.707, 95% CI: 1.317, 5.563), relative to non-participants. These findings further depict the need for intervention, as the burden of food insecurity persists. Tailoring health-promoting initiatives to consider rurality and SNAP participation is vital for sustainable success among these populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily DeWitt & Rachel Gillespie & Heather Norman-Burgdolf & Kathryn M. Cardarelli & Stacey Slone & Alison Gustafson, 2020. "Rural SNAP Participants and Food Insecurity: How Can Communities Leverage Resources to Meet the Growing Food Insecurity Status of Rural and Low-Income Residents?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6037-:d:401190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6037/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6037/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nguyen, B.T. & Shuval, K. & Bertmann, F. & Yaroch, A.L., 2015. "The supplemental nutrition assistance program, food insecurity, dietary quality, and obesity among US adults," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(7), pages 1453-1459.
    2. Gregory, Christian & Ver Ploeg, Michele & Andrews, Margaret & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, 2013. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation Leads to Modest Changes in Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 262225, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Caroline Ratcliffe & Signe-Mary McKernan & Sisi Zhang, 2011. "How Much Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1082-1098.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachel Gillespie & Emily DeWitt & Stacey Slone & Kathryn Cardarelli & Alison Gustafson, 2022. "The Impact of a Grocery Store Closure in One Rural Highly Obese Appalachian Community on Shopping Behavior and Dietary Intake," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Natalie Jones & Deirdre Dlugonski & Rachel Gillespie & Emily DeWitt & Joann Lianekhammy & Stacey Slone & Kathryn M. Cardarelli, 2021. "Physical Activity Barriers and Assets in Rural Appalachian Kentucky: A Mixed-Methods Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Kathryn M. Cardarelli & Emily DeWitt & Rachel Gillespie & Rachel H. Graham & Heather Norman-Burgdolf & Janet T. Mullins, 2021. "Policy Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Insecurity in Rural America: Evidence from Appalachia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lindsey Haynes-Maslow & Annie Hardison-Moody & Megan Patton-Lopez & T. Elaine Prewitt & Carmen Byker Shanks & Lauri Andress & Isabel Osborne & Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, 2020. "Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-15, September.
    2. Gregory, Christian A. & Deb, Partha, 2015. "Does SNAP improve your health?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 11-19.
    3. Katare, Bhagyashree & Binkley, James K. & Chen, Kaiyan, 2021. "Nutrition and diet quality of food at home by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) status," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    4. Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey & Osborne, Isabel & Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie & Sitaker, Marilyn & Byker-Shanks, Carmen & Leone, Lucia & Maldonado, Adriana & McGuirt, Jared & Andress, Lauri & Bailey-Davis, Lisa, 2018. "Rural corner store owners’ perceptions of stocking healthier foods in response to proposed SNAP retailer rule changes," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 58-66.
    5. Sylvia E Twersky, 2019. "Restrictive state laws aimed at immigrants: Effects on enrollment in the food stamp program by U.S. citizen children in immigrant families," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Charles Courtemanche & Augustine Denteh & Rusty Tchernis, 2019. "Estimating the Associations between SNAP and Food Insecurity, Obesity, and Food Purchases with Imperfect Administrative Measures of Participation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 202-228, July.
    7. James Mabli, "undated". "SNAP Participation, Food Security, and Geographic Access to Food," Mathematica Policy Research Reports da75fa3a960c45b08490c8f14, Mathematica Policy Research.
    8. Scharadin, Benjamin, 2022. "The efficacy of the dependent care deduction at maintaining diet quality," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    9. Kyung Min Kang & Robert A. Moffitt, 2019. "The Effect of SNAP and School Food Programs on Food Security, Diet Quality, and Food Spending: Sensitivity to Program Reporting Error," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 156-201, July.
    10. Gregory, Christian & Deb, Partha, 2016. "Who Benefits Most from SNAP?," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236648, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Nord, Mark, 2013. "Food Insecurity Among Households With Working-Age Adults With Disabilities," Economic Research Report 142955, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Yunhee Chang & Swarn Chatterjee & Jinhee Kim, 2014. "Household Finance and Food Insecurity," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 499-515, December.
    13. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Nord, Mark & Singh, Anita, 2013. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2012," Economic Research Report 262219, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    14. Burney, Shaheer & Boehm, Rebecca & Lopez, Rigoberto, 2021. "The impact of the ACA Medicaid expansion on SNAP participation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Vogel, Stephen & Miller, Cristina & Ralston, Katherine, 2021. "Impact of USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Rural and Urban Economies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," Economic Research Report 327185, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Jones, Jordan & Courtemanche, Charles & Denteh, Augustine & Marton, James & Tchernis, Rusty, 2021. "Do State Snap Policies Influence Program Participation among Seniors?," IZA Discussion Papers 14564, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Jung Sun Lee & Vibha Bhargava & Travis A. Smith & Temitope Aiyejorun Walker, 2022. "The effects of aging services and the supplemental nutrition assistance program on food insecurity among older Georgians: 2018–2020," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 635-652, June.
    18. Gallardo, Rosa Karina & Olanie, Aaron, 2012. "The Use of Wireless Capability at Farmers Markets: Results from a Choice Experiment Study," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124891, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Deb, Partha & Gregory, Christian A., 2018. "Heterogeneous impacts of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on food insecurity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 55-60.
    20. Reimer, Jeffrey J. & Weerasooriya, Senal & West, Tyler T., 2015. "How Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Affect the U.S. Economy?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 233-252, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6037-:d:401190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.