Longitudinal patterns of food insecurity, the home food environment, and parent feeding practices during COVID-19

Abstract Background The economic impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have drastically increased food insecurity in the United States Initial data, collected a few months into the pandemic, showed that families, particularly those experiencing food insecurity, reported detrimental changes to their home food environment and parent feeding practices, compared to before COVID-19 Objective This follow-up study obtained longitudinal data from a sample of parents in the United States to quantify changes in food security status, the home food environment, and parent feeding practices, from before to across COVID-19 as the pandemic continued to persist Methods Parents (N = 433) completed online surveys May (T1) and September (T2) 2020 during COVID-19 Food security, home food environment, and parent feeding practices were reported at each timepoint At T1, parents also retrospectively reported on these factors pertaining to before COVID-19 Chi square analyses and repeated measure mixed models examined associations among study variables Results Low or very low food security increased from before COVID-19 (37%) to T1 (54%) and decreased by T2 (45%) About 30% of families who became food insecure, and 44% who stayed food insecure from T1 to T2, reported a decrease in total food in their home;only 3%?6% who became/stayed food secure reported this decrease Parents' concern for child overweight and use of monitoring increased from before COVID-19 to T1, and decreased by T2, but remained elevated above pre?COVID-19 values Conclusion Rates of food insecurity remain high as this pandemic persists Continued assessment of nutrition-related factors and increased economic supports are critical for families to endure COVID-19 and prevent long-term obesity and health risks