Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Nutrients. 2024 Aug 28;16(17):2876. doi: 10.3390/nu16172876.
Given the lack of attention on adolescent food insecurity, the primary objective of this study was to assess the association of household participation in federal food assistance programs with food security status among adolescents in Baltimore during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents, ages 14-19 years, were invited to participate in two online surveys. The baseline was implemented between October 2020 and January 2021, while the follow-up took place one year later from November 2021 to January 2022 after schools had re-opened. We then matched survey participants with household participation in food nutrition assistance programs using data obtained from the Maryland Department of Social Services. We used logistic regression to examine the association between food assistance program participation status and food insecurity. Additionally, to examine whether the impact of program participation on food insecurity changed between the baseline survey and one year later at follow-up when schools re-opened, a difference-in-differences analysis was conducted. The results showed no significant associations between adolescent food security and participation in any of the federal nutrition assistance programs. Increased attention on how best to improve adolescent food security in low-income households that can respond to the unique needs of adolescents is clearly warranted.
鉴于青少年食物不安全问题未得到足够关注，本研究的主要目的是评估在 COVID-19 大流行期间巴尔的摩青少年家庭参与联邦食品援助计划与食物安全状况之间的关联。研究邀请了 14-19 岁的青少年参加了两次在线调查。基线调查于 2020 年 10 月至 2021 年 1 月进行，而在学校重新开放一年后的 2021 年 11 月至 2022 年 1 月进行了随访。然后，我们使用从马里兰州社会服务部获得的数据，将调查参与者与家庭参与食品营养援助计划进行匹配。我们使用逻辑回归来检验食品援助计划参与状况与食物不安全之间的关联。此外，为了检验计划参与对食物不安全的影响是否在校重新开放后的随访基线调查和一年后发生变化，我们进行了差异分析。结果表明，青少年食物安全与参与任何联邦营养援助计划之间均无显著关联。显然，需要更多关注如何改善能够满足青少年独特需求的低收入家庭中青少年的食物安全问题。
