Nutrition Policy Research

Reports

• "Promoting Public Benefits Access Through Web-Based Tools and Outreach." Jacqueline Kauff, Emily Sama-Miller, Gretchen Rowe, Cicely Thomas, and Libby Makowsky, December 2011. This report summarizes existing web-based benefits access efforts and presents a small subset of case studies of efforts identified through a national scan. It focuses on issues related to the design and management of web-based tools; technology options and requirements; financial considerations; outputs and outcomes; and issues for sustaining, expanding, and replicating existing web-based tools.
• "Direct Certification in the National School Lunch Program: State Implementation Progress School Year 2010-2011." Report to Congress. Quinn Moore, Kevin Conway, and Brandon Kyler, October 2011. This report to Congress assesses the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs. At the start of the 2010-2011 school year, 1.9 million more children were directly certified for free school meals than in the previous year. Summary.
• "Dynamics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation in the Mid-2000s." James Mabli, Stephen Tordella, Laura Castner, Thomas Godfrey, and Priscilla Foran, September 2011. This report investigates SNAP caseload dynamics from 2004 to 2006. It describes individuals' patterns of participation and explores reasons for entering and leaving SNAP, how long participants receive SNAP benefits, and whether they return to the program after exiting. It also examines whether participation patterns in the mid-2000s differed from those of earlier periods.
• "Determinants of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Entry and Exit in the Mid-2000s." James Mabli, Thomas Godfrey, Laura Castner, Stephen Tordella, and Priscilla Foran, September 2011. This study looks at the factors associated with SNAP entry and exit from 2004 to 2006 by examining individual and family demographic and economic characteristics, as well as state economic measures and SNAP policies.
• "Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2010." Esa Eslami, Kai Filion, and Mark Strayer, September 2011. This report describes the characteristics of SNAP households and participants nationwide in FY 2010. It also presents an overview of SNAP eligibility requirements and benefit levels. Nearly half of all participants (47 percent) were children and another 8 percent were age 60 or older. Summary.
• "Trends in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates: Fiscal Year 2002 to Fiscal Year 2009." Joshua Leftin, Esa Eslami, and Mark Strayer, August 2011. This report presents findings showing that, from FY 2008 to FY 2009, the number of SNAP participants increased by 18 percent and the number of eligible individuals increased by 15 percent. The large increase in the number of participants was likely attributable to the deterioration of the economy, expansions in SNAP eligibility, and continued outreach efforts. Summary.
• "Benefit Redemption Patterns in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." Laura Castner and Juliette Henke, February 2011. In response to the economic downturn and increasing food prices, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) raised the maximum Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit by 13.6 percent, effective April 2009. This study identifies how spending patterns, such as the rate at which households spend their benefit, changed following the benefit increase and analyzes how spending patterns differed across household characteristics, time, and states. In comparing the pre-ARRA to post-ARRA period in 2009, households made an additional 1.6 transactions per month (increasing from 8.5 to 10.1) and spent slightly less, on average, on each transaction (decreasing from $30 to $29). Summary.
• "Empirical Bayes Shrinkage Estimates of State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in 2006-2008 for All Eligible People and the Working Poor." Karen E. Cunnyngham, Laura A. Castner, and Allen L. Schirm, February 2011. This report estimates states’ need for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and the program’s effectiveness from 2006 to 2008. The estimated numbers of people eligible for SNAP measure the need for the program. The estimated SNAP participation rates measure, state by state, the program’s performance in reaching its target population. In addition, the report derived estimates of participation rates for the working poor.

Journal Articles

• "Publishing Nutrition Research: A Review of Multivariate Techniques Part 2: Analysis of Variance." Jeffrey E. Harris, Patricia M. Sheean, Philip M. Gleason, Barbara Bruemmer, and Carol Boushey. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, January 2012 (subscription required).This article is the eighth in a series exploring the importance of research design, statistical analysis, and epidemiology in nutrition and dietetics research. It is the second article in that series focused on multivariate statistical analytical techniques. This review examines the statistical technique of analysis of variance (ANOVA), from its simplest form to multivariate applications. It addresses all these applications and includes hypothetical and real examples from the field of dietetics.
• "Publishing Nutrition Research: A Review of Multivariate Techniques Part 1." Patricia M. Sheean, Barbara Bruemmer, Philip Gleason, Jeffrey Harris, Carol Boushey, and Linda Van Horn. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, January 2011 (subscription required). This article is the seventh in a series reviewing the importance of research design, analyses, and epidemiology in the conduct, interpretation, and publication of nutrition research. This review introduces the more commonly used multivariate techniques including linear and logistic regression (simple and multiple) and survival analyses (Kaplan Meier plots and Cox regression).
• Findings from the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) 2008, a follow up to Mathematica’s groundbreaking 2002 study, are presented in a special supplement to the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (subscription required). Senior fellow Ronette Briefel serves as guest editor.

  "New Findings from the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study: Data to Inform Action." Ronette R. Briefel. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2010. This guest editorial describes findings from FITS 2008, places the results in the context of other large-scale nutrition studies for infants and toddlers, and examines the potential impact on policymakers’ efforts to address childhood obesity.

  "The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study 2008: Study Design and Methods." Ronette R. Briefel, Laura M. Kalb, Elizabeth Condon, Denise M. Deming, Nancy A. Clusen, Mary Kay Fox, Lisa Harnack, Erin Gemmill, Mary Stevens, Kathleen C. Reidy. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2010. This article describes the study design, data collection methods, 24-hour dietary recall protocol, and sample characteristics.

  "Food Consumption Patterns of Young Preschoolers: Are They Starting Off On the Right Path?" Mary Kay Fox. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2010. This article describes the dietary habits of 2- and 3-year-olds. Almost three-quarters of children consumed fruit, and about 70 percent ate vegetables at least once in a day. However, french fries and other fried potatoes were the most commonly eaten vegetable, and about 85 percent consumed some type of sweetened beverage, dessert, sweet, or salty snack in a day.

  "Nutrient Intakes of US Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers Meet or Exceed Dietary Reference Intakes." Nancy F. Butte, Mary Kay Fox, Ronette R. Briefel, Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Johanna T. Dwyer, Denise M. Deming, and Kathleen C. Reidy. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2010. This article notes that nutrient intakes are adequate for the majority of U.S. infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, except for a small but important proportion of infants at risk for inadequate iron and zinc intakes.

  "Food Consumption Patterns of Infants and Toddlers: Where Are We Now?" Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Denise M. Deming, Kathleen C. Reidy, Mary Kay Fox, Elizabeth Condon, and Ronette R. Briefel. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, December 2010. Compared to the 2002 FITS study, FITS 2008 shows a higher percentage of infants are being breastfed, and fewer infants are consuming infant cereal. The percentage of infants and toddlers consuming desserts or candy, sweetened beverages, and salty snacks was significantly lower in 2008; however, fruit and vegetable consumption also remains lower than desired.

Issue Briefs

• "Reaching Those in Need: State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in 2009." Karen E. Cunnyngham, December 2011. This document presents estimates of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation rates for all eligible people and for the working poor, by state, for fiscal year 2009. Eighteen states had rates that were significantly higher (in a statistical sense) than the national rate, and 12 states had rates that were significantly lower. Among the regions, the Midwest Region had the highest participation rate—82 percent—a rate significantly higher than all of the other regions. The Western Region's participation rate of 63 percent was significantly lower than the rates for all of the other regions.
• "Reaching Those in Need: State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in 2008." Karen E. Cunnyngham and Laura A. Castner, December 2010. Read about SNAP participation rates in all 50 states for all eligible people and for the working poor in fiscal year 2008. These estimates can be used to assess recent program performance and focus efforts to improve performance.
• "Reaching Those in Need: State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in 2007." Karen E. Cunnyngham and Laura A. Castner, November 2009. In the continuing debate about the effectiveness of nutrition programs for low-income people, policymakers and others concerned about hunger in America want to know whether people in different areas of the country who need SNAP benefits—formerly called food stamp benefits—are getting them. This brief notes wide variation across states in 2007—with participation rates ranging from 47 to 100 percent. About 66 percent of eligible people across the United States received SNAP benefits in that year. The brief also notes that 56 percent of eligible working poor—people who live in households in which someone earns income from a job but have income low enough to qualify for SNAP—participated in the program. Mathematica has produced these rates for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, since the mid-1990s. The estimates were derived using shrinkage estimation methods drawing on data from the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and administrative records
• "Who Picks Up the Tab? Reducing Payment Errors in School Nutrition Programs." Trends in Nutrition Policy Issue Brief #3. Michael Ponza, Philip Gleason, Lara Hulsey, and Quinn Moore, February 2009. Over the years, concern has mounted that many of the more than 26 million children certified to receive free or reduced-price meals may be ineligible for these benefits. This brief looks at the issue of reducing payment errors in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Mathematica’s study, the first effort to quantify the amounts and rates of improper payments in these programs, looked at two types of certification errors: (1) household reporting errors, which occur when households misreport information on their applications; and (2) administrative errors, which occur when districts make mistakes in processing applications, determining eligibility, or recording certification status. For all students who applied for school meal benefits or were directly certified, about one in five were either incorrectly deemed eligible for the level of benefits they were approved for, or erroneously denied benefits. In addition, among those certified in error, overcertification was about twice as likely as undercertification. For both the NSLP and SBP, about nine percent of total meal reimbursements were erroneous because of certification error.
• "I Am Moving, I Am Learning (IM/IL): Early Findings from the Implementation of an Obesity Prevention Enhancement in Head Start Region III." Daniel Finkelstein, Robert Whitaker, Elaine Hill, Mary Kay Fox, Linda Mendenko, and Kimberly Boller, December 2008. I Am Moving, I Am Learning is a Head Start program enhancement for integrating obesity prevention activities into daily practices. This research brief, based on Mathematica’s interim report, documents the findings from a survey of 53 Head Start programs that participated in training in Region III in spring of 2006. It describes early implementation of IM/IL, including successes, challenges, and sustainability.

Other

• "Planning a WIC Research Agenda." Barbara Devaney, January 2011. This report summarizes workshop presentations and discussions by the Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board Committee, reviewing research on the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages, the third-largest food assistance program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• "WIC Turns 35: Program Effectiveness and Future Directions." Barbara Devaney. In Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life, edited by Arthur J. Reynolds, Arthur J. Rolnick, Michelle M. Englund, and Judy A. Temple, August 2010. The author reviews the history of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), describes WIC eligibility and benefits, presents findings from major WIC evaluations, and offers thoughts on the future WIC research agenda.
• "Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support the School Meals Program: Interim Report." Allen Schirm and Nancy Kirkendall, editors, 2010. This monograph describes the planned work of a National Research Council expert panel, chaired by Allen Schirm, to study technical and operational issues in using data from the American Community Survey—the continuous survey that has replaced the decennial census long-form survey—to obtain estimates of students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals. These estimates could be used to determine federal reimbursements to districts for schools that eliminate program applications and provide free meals to all students.
• “School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children.” Mary Kay Fox, Institute of Medicine committee member, October 2009. The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program play key roles in supporting the nutrition and health of schoolchildren in the United States by providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free meals every school day. This Institute of Medicine committee report provides the following recommendations to revise standards and requirements so that school meals are more healthful: increase the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; set a minimum and maximum level of calories; and reduce saturated fat and sodium.
• An article by Mathematica’s obesity and nutrition researchers was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of the top five articles in 2009 that the foundation believes had a major policy impact, affected its work and thinking, or warranted attention, given the foundation’s focus on advancing the research and knowledge base for childhood obesity prevention. The article, “Association Between School Food Environment and Practices and Body Mass Index of US Public School Children,” by Mary Kay Fox, Allison Hedley Dodd, Ander Wilson, and Philip Gleason, appeared in the February 2009 supplement to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The supplement featured findings from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment-III study, which Mathematica conducted in 2005.