Food shopping practices are associated with dietary quality in low-income households

Nutrition education for low-income audiences often focuses on building skil ls in food shopping and food resource management to help families receive t he best nutrition from the resources they have available. However, empirica l evidence for the effect of food shopping practice on dietary quality has been limited. This article presents new analyses from two studies that foun d an association between food shopping practices' and diet quality. Logisti c regression of data from 957 respondents from the 1996 National Food Stamp Program Survey found that food shopping practices were significantly (p le ss than or equal to .05) associated with the availability of nutrients in t he food the households used during a week. Similarly, analysis of baseline data from 5159 women from selected counties of states who participated in t he Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program found that food shopping p ractices were significantly (p less than or equal to .05) associated with i ncreased consumption of nutrients as measured through a single 24-hour reca ll. These findings suggest that food shopping practices are an important ar ea for nutrition education with low-income audiences.