Food Insecurity, the Home Food Environment, and Parent Feeding Practices in the Era of COVID‐19

TLDR

The study examined how families’ home food environment and parent feeding practices changed from before to during COVID‑19 and whether these changes varied by food security status. Data were collected via an online survey of 584 US parents who reported on food security, home food availability, and feeding practices before and during COVID‑19, and associations by food security status were assessed with chi‑square tests and univariate regressions. During COVID‑19, very low food security rose by 20%, many families added high‑calorie snacks, desserts, fresh foods, and processed foods, and parents reported greater concern about child overweight and increased restrictive, pressuring, and monitoring feeding practices—especially among food‑insecure families—highlighting heightened obesity risk for children.

Abstract

This study aimed to describe changes in families' home food environment and parent feeding practices, from before to during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and examine whether changes differed by food security status.Parents (N = 584) in the US completed a single online survey, reporting on food security, home food availability, and feeding practices both retrospectively (considering before COVID-19) and currently (during COVID-19). χ2 and univariate regressions examined associations by food security status.The percent of families reporting very low food security increased by 20% from before to during COVID-19 (P < 0.01). About one-third of families increased the amount of high-calorie snack foods, desserts/sweets, and fresh foods in their home; 47% increased nonperishable processed foods. Concern about child overweight increased during COVID-19, with a greater increase for food-insecure versus food-secure parents (P < 0.01). Use of restriction, pressure to eat, and monitoring increased, with a greater increase in pressure to eat for parents with food insecurity compared with food-secure parents (P < 0.05).During COVID-19, increases in very low food security and changes in the home food environment and parent feeding practices were observed. Results highlight the need to address negative impacts of COVID-19 on children's obesity risk, particularly among those facing health disparities.