Food Assistance Generosity and Health Behaviors: Smoking, Drinking, and Diet

• In Event: Nutrition Assistance Policies: Changes, Participation, and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Background: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest food assistance program in the United States, providing nutrition support to low-income individuals and families. While food assistance programs are widely believed to reduce food insecurity, researchers raise concerns about whether benefits adequately incentivize the purchase of healthier food options and possible substitution effects that could increase unwanted health behaviors like smoking and drinking. Existing studies on SNAP and health behavior have focused primarily on SNAP participation and outcomes related to diet and health, such as diet quality, obesity, and mortality, while providing more limited evidence on behavioral responses beyond food consumption and the pathways linking SNAP to health outcomes, including smoking and alcohol use. This study examines how variation in state-level SNAP generosity before the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with health behaviors and helps explain behavioral responses beyond food consumption and the pathways linking SNAP to health outcomes. 

Methods: We used Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 2001 to 2019, and a measure of SNAP benefit generosity that summaries eligibility and benefit levels based on each state’s policies. We estimated two-way fixed effects regressions with state and year fixed effects to assess the relationship between the annual monetary value of SNAP benefits and multiple behavioral outcomes. We examined a broad set of health behavior, including smoking, drinking, and dietary behaviors.  

Results: Higher SNAP generosity was associated with greater fruit consumption across the whole time period and was linked to higher vegetable consumption, though only in the period 2001–2010. However, SNAP generosity was also associated with higher frequency of smoking and greater soda consumption, while we find no statistically significant evidence that SNAP generosity is related to drinking frequency, heavy drinking, or average alcohol consumption.  

Implication: More generous SNAP benefits can incentivize healthier eating though could also produce substitution effects that enable more fiscal space for smoking and soda consumption, but not alcohol use.

Author

• KUN HUANG, University at Albany
  Presenting Author