SES and race-ethnic disparities in food purchasing and dietary intake:2000-2015

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): SES and race-ethnic disparities of food purchasing and dietary intake: 2000-2015 Our primary goals are to use in-depth descriptive and longitudinal analyses of shift in food purchases among critical race/ethnic and SES subpopulations to examine the impact of the Great Recession (beginning in 2007), and other SES factors on short-term and long-term food purchase and dietary outcomes. In addition, we will seek to understand factors determining how our key subpopulations select the consumer packaged goods sector (CPGs) foods and beverages they purchase and how this affects their nutrient intake. Food purchase and dietary outcomes include nutritional quality (calories, sodium, saturated fat and added sugars), and patterns (focusing on selected subgroups of foods considered to contain large proportions of empty calories, and away-from-home intakes). Using data purchased under separate funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the UNC Food Research Program (UNCFRP) has created a longitudinal file of Nielsen Homescan household purchase data from 2000-2012, and we propose to expand this work to later years and additional analyses under this grant. We examine a number of key issues related to the diets of key minority (Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites) and lower income subpopulations. We will use longitudinal commercial data on CPG food and beverage purchases by a nationally representative sample of 35,000 to 60,000 households in each quarter linked with nutrition facts panel data at the barcode level. With a unique crosswalk, we link these commercial data to the publicly available What We Eat in America (WWEIA) dietary intake interview component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) and the US Department of Agriculture nutrient databases. We will implement established linear programming methods to estimate added sugar content of all commercial CPG products (706,451 items in 2000-10 alone). We use longitudinal methods, correct for endogeneity in selection of various types of stores (convenience, grocery, mass merchandisers/supercenters, and warehouse/club stores), account for dynamics in market shares of branded vs. private label products, and examine other issues relevant to dynamics of food purchase and diet among race-ethnic, age and income subpopulations.