Do Household Headship and Gender Affect Diet Quality under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)?

Abstract

Purpose Examine whether the association between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and diet quality is different by gender and household headship. Design Quantitative, cross-sectional. Setting The 2007-2018 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Subjects 6180 individuals aged 20 to 65 with household annual income below 130% of the poverty level. Measures The outcome of diet quality was measured using the 2015 Healthy Eating Index (HEI) based on dietary intake from 24-hour diet recall. The exposures were self-reported participation in SNAP and socio-demographic variables. Analysis Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression models. Results The study found that female household heads had higher average total HEI scores relative to their male and non-head counterparts (β = 1.81, 95% CI: −.27, 3.88). However, for SNAP participants, female household heads had lower average total HEI scores (β = −3.67, 95% CI: −7.36, .11). Conclusion Female household heads are more likely to experience difficulty in maintaining diet quality relative to their counterparts. The study suggests that intra-household effort allocation may play an important role in differentiating and maintaining diet quality.