Title: Understanding usage of federal aid by participants at local/farmer’s markets
Authors: Megan Nelson, OMSI, and Anthony Stephas, DHSC, PA-C
Background
This review explores the potential link between federal aid for food, its use at local/farmer’s markets, and improved health outcomes in contrast of individuals that use federal aid at grocery stores. Historically, individuals that obtain less processed foods for consumption have improved health outcomes compared to their counterparts, who consume more processed foods.
Purpose
Several studies have been published that focus on the usage of federal aid at local/farmer’s markets compared to grocery stores or the health outcomes of individuals receiving food-related federal aid; however, there are limited studies previously published that are inclusive of all federal aid usage at local/farmer’s markets and the impact on the individual’s health outcomes contrasting those who use federal aid at grocery stores. Our review will provide additional awareness of the impact of using federal aid at local/farmer’s markets for improved health outcomes.
Methods
We completed a literature review of meta-analyses, review articles, clinical trials, observational studies, and randomized control studies found through PubMed and EBSCO from 2009-2020. The articles focused on the usage of federal aid by participants at local farmer’s markets and any health outcome measurement associated.
Results
We discovered that there is an increase rate of federal aid usage at local/farmer’s markets, especially if the individuals are working with a healthcare team to manage chronic medical conditions. Families with children under five years old are the most reported usage group since the children were often given a prescription for fruits and vegetables during their check-ups. When the local/farmer’s market was set up within a facility, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers, a sharp increase in usage of federal aid and improvements in measured health outcomes was reported. Additionally, many local/farmer’s markets will increase the incentive to participate by providing monetary bonuses for using federal aid at the local/farmer’s market. Unfortunately, increasing monetary bonuses reduced some barriers to quality food access and additional barriers were not documented.
Conclusion
There is limited research focusing on the health outcomes of individuals using federal aid at local/farmer’s markets. Perceived barriers to usage of federal aid at local/farmer’s markets should be thoroughly evaluated prior to health outcomes. Additional clinical research should review the barriers of federal aid usage at local/farmer’s markets.
Thank you for pursuing this very important topic! As a judge, I would like to know who many papers were included in the review and did you use any exclusion criteria.
Dr. Habecker, A total of 11 articles were included in our review. The following search terms were applied to each database: “federal aid at local markets,” “WIC/SNAP at local markets,” “farmer’s markets and health,” “health outcomes and federal aid,” “EBT and local market and health”, “prescription and local market and WIC/SNAP,” “government aid and farmer’s markets.” Only free full text articles were considered in our review. Repeat studies were eliminated. Review articles and meta-analyses were also evaluated for redundancy and eliminated if necessary. I dug through many reviews and meta-analyses to find the primary studies as I viewed them as more valuable; however, I did use meta-analyses and review articles if they were more specific to my hypothesis.
Thank you for this work. I was NOT assigned as a judge for your project, but I do have a question. Are there state-level factors (e.g., aid package structures, etc) that could contribute to some of your findings?
Dr. Briggs-Early, In short- yes there were state-level factors that modified my findings. For instance, one of the papers that I reviewed listed a county in New York that completed a huge campaign to increase education about the use of federal aid at local/farmer’s markets and it improved the usage long term; however, these studies were limited and only focused on usage without other outcomes such as health or barriers.
Judge: Thank you for sharing your research. I’m curious if there were any findings in your research demonstrating ethnic/racial differences in the utilization of federal aid in local/farmer’s markets?
Ms. Garehime, there were findings in the a few of the review articles that listed ethnic/racial difference in utilization; however, they were not significant to add at this point in time as the information was too limited to provide support in any way. As we continue this project, I plan to find additional information regarding your question to determine if a statement of that caliber can be confirmed.
Thank you for your presentation, Student Dr. Nelson. If you were designing a study to further examine these questions, how might you frame your hypotheses?
Dr. Smith, Thank you for that question. This is the next step in our research and we are currently deeply evaluating the current literature to determine the best way to approach this information. It is a broad topic but we would like to gear our focus onto the barriers experienced, which will most likely be a questionnaire to gain the maximal amount of information with delineated categories to present this information in an easily digestible form for future impact/reforms.