title: Improved parental dietary quality is associated with children's dietary intake through the home environment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improving access to supermarkets has been shown to improve some dietary outcomes, yet there is little evidence for such effects on children. Relatedly, there is a dearth of research assessing the impact of a structural change (i.e. supermarket in a former food desert) on the home environment and its relationship with children's diet.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Assess the relative impact of the home environment on children's diet after the introduction of a new supermarket in a food desert.
  
  
  METHODS
  Among a randomly selected cohort of households living in a food desert, parental diet was assessed before and after the opening of a full-service supermarket. The home environment and children's intake of fruits and vegetables was measured at one point - after the store's opening. Structural equation models were used to estimate the pathways between changes in parental dietary quality at follow-up and children's dietary intake through the home environment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parental dietary improvement after the supermarket opened was associated with having a better home environment (β= 0.45,p= 0.001) and with healthier children's dietary intake (β= 0.46,p< 0.001) through higher family nutrition and physical activity scores (β= 0.25,p= 0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Policy solutions designed to improve diet among low-resource communities should take into account the importance of the home environment.
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Santa Monica USA.
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Flórez
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Pittsburgh USA.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Arlington USA.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ghosh-Dastidar
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Santa Monica USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beckman
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Santa Monica USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Pittsburgh USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation Pittsburgh USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dubowitz
keywords: African–American children; dietary quality; food deserts; home environment