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Prices of Unhealthy Foods, Food Stamp Program Participation, and Body Weight Status Among U.S. Low-Income Women

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Abstract

This paper examines the interactive effect between the price of unhealthy foods and Food Stamp Program participation on body weight status among low-income women in the United States. We merged the panel data of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort in 1985–2002 and the Cost of Living Index data compiled by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association by using geographic identifiers. Using the merged data, we used panel econometric models to examine the impact of unhealthy food prices on the food stamp-eligible U.S. population. Our results indicate that higher prices for unhealthy food can partially offset the positive association between Food Stamp Program participation and bodyweight among low-income women.

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Notes

  1. 1. Two-thirds of the daily consumption of potatoes in the U.S. is in the processed form, such as French fries or chips, which are deemed as unhealthy food (Keijbets 2008).

  2. 2. CES provides the food categories and prices by household income, which can be used for further analyses of the price effect on low-income adults’ body weight status.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a USDA/ERS Research Innovation and Development Grant in Economics (RIDGE) jointly with the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University. Dr. Zhang was also funded by the National Institute of Child and Human Development (1R03HD056073). We thank Professors Harold Pollack, PhD, and Willard Manning, PhD, for their useful comments. Editorial assistance from Ms. C. Kay Smith, MS, is greatly appreciated. We also appreciate the comments from two anonymous reviewers. Dr. Wang is also supported by the NIH/NIDDK (R01DK81335-01A1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Qi Zhang

  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd. NE, MS-E33, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Zhuo Chen

  3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Norou Diawara

  4. Department of International Health, Center for Human Nutrition, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Youfa Wang

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  1. Qi Zhang
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Correspondence to Qi Zhang.

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The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Zhang, Q., Chen, Z., Diawara, N. et al. Prices of Unhealthy Foods, Food Stamp Program Participation, and Body Weight Status Among U.S. Low-Income Women. J Fam Econ Iss 32, 245–256 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-010-9228-x

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