September 5, 2003

New Study Shows Participation in Federal Nutrition Programs Can Contribute to Reducing Childhood Obesity

A ground-breaking peer-reviewed study, by academic researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, shows that participation in the child nutrition programs and Food Stamps can reduce childhood obesity.

How was the study done? Using nationally representative data from an official government survey of children (the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement), the researchers focused on the risk of a low-income child (i.e., household income at or below 185 percent of poverty) aged 5 to 12 years being at or above the 85^th percentile of body mass index for age (an indication of overweight). The study looked at this risk for such children in both food secure and food insecure households (using the USDA Household Food Security Module), controlling for participation in the Food Stamp Program, the School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

What did the researchers find? The paper reports that girls in food insecure households had a significantly lower risk of being overweight if they participated in any or all of the programs, including School Lunch, School Breakfast, and Food Stamps. (Food insecure children are those who live in households whose members, according to rigorous Census Bureau criteria, are suffering from hunger or unbalanced diets or who are otherwise living on the very edge of hunger because of constrained economic circumstances.) The researchers state in the article, "These results point to the importance of food assistance to children in food insecure households not only in alleviating food insecurity, but also in potentially protecting them from excess weight gain." (They also report that among boys in food insecure households, and girls and boys in food secure households participation in any or all of the programs did not increase or decrease the odds of being classified at risk of overweight.)

What are the policy implications of this research? We already know that reaching more children in need with the benefits of the child nutrition programs improves attendance and attentiveness in school and afterschool and summer programs, and strengthens child care and out-of-school time programs. This paper points to an additional and very important benefit of the child nutrition programs: participation in them can combat childhood obesity. The Food Research and Action Center has been urging modest, targeted new investments through Reauthorization in the Summer Food, School Breakfast, National School Lunch and Child and Adult Care Food Programs. This study points to another important reason to support expansion in the child nutrition programs. Some have suggested that federal food programs help contribute to the obesity problem in the US. This study provides strong evidence to the contrary. The best evidence now is that the child nutrition programs contribute to reducing obesity in this country, rather than exacerbating the obesity problem. Broadening access to the programs is a part of the solution, not a part of the obesity problem.

Developed by: Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)