The interactive role of SNAP participation and residential neighborhood in childhood obesity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nationally representative studies of childhood obesity have examined the roles played by neighborhood conditions and by SNAP use, but not the effects of these factors together or in interaction. We used restricted, geocoded data from the 1986–2012 Child and Young Adult sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth with sibling fixed effects models to explore the effects of time receiving SNAP within disadvantaged neighborhoods on child obesity. Time participating in SNAP during ages 2–8 and ages 14–18 was associated with a lower proportion of time obese for children in disadvantaged neighborhoods, to an increasing degree as the level of neighborhood advantage declined. Given that most individuals who spend an extended period of time using SNAP live in the least advantaged neighborhoods, these results suggest that SNAP participation during these childhood years may help to reduce proportion of time obese as a child. Overall, results of this investigation suggest that participation in SNAP may have protective effects for children living in low-income households within disadvantaged neighborhoods.