Are Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Restrictions on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Effective in Reducing Purchase or Consumption? A Systematic Review.

The participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) consume greater amounts of sugar and sweetened beverages (SSBs) compared to non-eligible individuals, which could result in potential negative health outcomes. This can be attributed to the lack of restrictions on SSB purchases with SNAP benefits. In view of the increasing calls from advocates and policymakers to restrict the purchase of SSBs with SNAP benefits, we performed a systematic review to assess its impact towards SSB purchases and consumption. We searched articles from five databases-Cochrane, EBSCO, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and PubMed-and selected seven studies, four of which were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and three were simulation modeling studies. All three simulation studies and one RCT reported outcomes in terms of consumption, while the other three RCTs reported outcomes in terms of purchases. All seven studies found that an SSB restriction led to a decrease in SSB consumption or purchases, with six studies reporting significant results. Nonetheless, limitations exist. These include limited studies on this subject, potential workarounds circumventing SSB restrictions, like making purchases using personal cash, potentially differed estimated effects when combined with incentives or other initiatives, and the limited geographical scope among the selected RCTs.

Using Mobile Phone Data to Assess Socio-Economic Disparities in Unhealthy Food Reliance during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Although COVID-19 has disproportionately affected socio-economically vulnerable populations, research on its impact on socio-economic disparities in unhealthy food reliance remains scarce. Methods: This study uses mobile phone data to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on socio-economic disparities in reliance on convenience stores and fast food. Reliance is defined in terms of the proportion of visits to convenience stores out of the total visits to both convenience and grocery stores, and the proportion of visits to fast food restaurants out of the total visits to both fast food and full-service restaurants. Visits to each type of food outlet at the county level were traced and aggregated using mobile phone data before being analyzed with socio-economic demographics and COVID-19 incidence data. Results: Our findings suggest that a new COVID-19 case per 1,000 population decreased a county's odds of relying on convenience stores by 3.41% and increased its odds of fast food reliance by 0.72%. As a county's COVID-19 incidence rate rises by an additional case per 1,000 population, the odds of relying on convenience stores increased by 0.01%, 0.02%, and 0.06% for each additional percentage of Hispanics, college-educated residents, and every additional year in median age, respectively. For fast food reliance, as a county's COVID-19 incidence rate increases by one case per 1,000 population, the odds decreased by 0.003% for every additional percentage of Hispanics but increased by 0.02% for every additional year in the county's median age. Conclusion: These results complement existing literature to promote equitable food environments.

COVID-19's impact on visitation behavior to US national parks from communities of color: evidence from mobile phone data.

The widespread COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed many people's ways of life. With the necessity of social distancing and lock downs across the United States, evidence shows more people engage in outdoor activities. With the utilization of location-based service (LBS) data, we seek to explore how visitation patterns to national parks changed among communities of color during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results show that visitation rates to national parks located closer than 347 km to individuals have increased amidst the pandemic, but the converse was demonstrated amongst parks located further than 347 km from individuals. More importantly, COVID-19 has adversely impacted visitation figures amongst non-white and Native American communities, with visitation volumes declining if these communities are situated further from national parks. Our results show disproportionately low-representations amongst national park visitors from these communities of color. African American communities display a particularly concerning trend whereby their visitation to national parks is substantially lower amongst communities closer to national parks.