During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. food assistance programs allowed the use of program benefits to order groceries online. We examined relationships between the food environment, food assistance, online grocery ordering, and diet quality among adults from one low-income, low food access community in Northeastern Connecticut during the pandemic. Via online survey, adults (n = 276) reported their perceived home and store food environments, food assistance participation, whether they ordered groceries online, and consumption frequency and liking of foods/beverages to calculate diet quality indices. Those who ordered groceries online (44.6%) were more likely to participate in food assistance programs and report greater diet quality. Perceived healthiness of store and home food environments was variable, with the ease of obtaining and selecting unhealthy foods in the neighborhood significantly greater than healthy foods. Healthier perceived home food environments were associated with significantly higher diet qualities, especially among individuals who participated in multiple food assistance programs. Ordering groceries online interacted with multiple measures of the food environment to influence diet quality. Generally, the poorest diet quality was observed among individuals who perceived their store and home food environments as least healthy and who did not order groceries online. Thus, ordering groceries online may support higher diet quality among adults who can use their food assistance for purchasing groceries online and who live in low-income, low-access food environments.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9964317PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15040862DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

groceries online
32
diet quality
28
food assistance
24
food environments
20
food
15
ordering groceries
12
quality adults
12
assistance programs
12
store food
12
online
10

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!