Nutrition and diet quality of food at home by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) status

Abstract We use the data from the four NHANES surveys conducted from 2007 to 2014 to compare the nutrition and diet quality of food at home (FAH) of current SNAP participants with that of two types of past participants—more recent and less recent—and with that of eligible non-participants. We investigate the three outcome measures of FAH diet quality: the USDA Healthy Eating Index (HEI), an index based on nutrient profiling, and a measure of calorie density. We also examine HEI components and consider selected healthy/unhealthy foods. Our estimates suggest that SNAP participation does not drive FAH diet quality. In particular, we find no evidence that current SNAP participants have a lower FAH nutrition or diet quality when compared to other groups that have participated in SNAP at more or less recent times in the past.