This study examined the relationship between Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation and the obesity of low income individuals using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Obesity was defined as body mass index >or= 30 kg/m(2). The data were arranged as a panel with multiple observations per individual, and the models of obesity included current and long-term FSP participation, additional demographic, socioeconomic and environment characteristics and individual fixed effects. Individual fixed effects were used to take into account unobserved differences across individuals that did not vary over time. In ordinary least squares models, current and long-term FSP participation were significantly related to the obesity of low income women (P < 0.05), but not of low income men. For low income women, current participation in the FSP was associated with a 9.1% increase in the predicted probability of current obesity. Participation in the FSP in each of the previous five years compared to no participation over that time period was associated with approximately a 20.5% increase in the predicted probability of current obesity. These models did not control for food insecurity, and this omission potentially complicates the interpretation of the FSP participation variables.

Residents of urban neighborhoods with a higher concentration of small grocery stores may be more likely to patronize these stores and consume more calories because small grocery stores tend to offer more unhealthy food options than healthy food options. Moving to an urban area may expose movers to a wider variety of food options that may influence calorie consumption.

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We analyze the relationship between prenatal WIC participation and birth outcomes in New York City from [1988][1989][1990][1991][1992][1993][1994][1995][1996][1997][1998][1999][2000][2001]. The analysis is unique for several reasons. First, we restrict the analysis to women on Medicaid and or WIC who have no previous live births and who initiate prenatal care within the first four months of pregnancy. Our goal is to lessen heterogeneity between WIC and non-WIC participants by limiting the sample to women who initiate prenatal care early and who have no experience with WIC from a previous pregnancy. Second, we focus on measures of fetal growth distinct from preterm birth, since there is little clinical support for a link between nutritional supplementation and premature delivery. Third, we analyze a large sub-sample of twin deliveries.Multifetal pregnancies increase the risk of anemia and fetal growth retardation and thus, may benefit more than singletons from nutritional supplementation. We find no relationship between prenatal WIC participation and measures of fetal growth except among a sub-sample of US-born Blacks between 1990-1992. A similarly sporadic pattern of association exists among US-born Black twins.Our finding that the modest association between WIC and fetal growth is limited to a specific racial and ethnic group during specific years and even specific ages suggests that the protective effect of prenatal WIC on adverse birth outcomes in New York City has been minimal.

Previous research using longitudinal data has found a positive and significant relationship between Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation and overweight in young girls and obesity in low-income women. This paper examined whether these relationships occurred simultaneously for members of the same family using longitudinal data on young (aged 4.5-11.5 y) girls and their mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. The results of ordinary least squares models that included detailed measures of individual, family, and environment characteristics and daughter or mother fixed effects indicated that all of the positive association between long-term FSP participation and overweight in daughters was accounted for by the association between long-term FSP participation and simultaneous overweight in daughters and obesity in mothers. Similarly, all of the positive association between long-term FSP participation and obesity in mothers was accounted for by the association between long-term FSP participation and simultaneous obesity in mothers and overweight in at least 1 young daughter. These results suggest that the relationship between long-term FSP participation and weight is a family phenomenon.