title: Prices of unhealthy foods, Food Stamp Program participation, and body weight status among U.S. low-income women.
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.
authors.affiliation: School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA; qzhang@odu.edu.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., NE, MS-E33, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA; fov7@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA; ndiawara@odu.edu.
authors.forename: Norou
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Diawara
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; ywang@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Youfa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: body mass index; food prices; food stamp program; obesity; socioeconomic status