Dietary Intake and Appetite Hormone Patterns among Mothers Participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation has been associated with obesity in women. The objective of this pilot study was to describe the caloric intake and dietary quality at the beginning, middle, and end of a SNAP cycle among food insecure, African-American female head-of-households with overweight/obesity (n = 12). The feasibility of obtaining appetite-regulating hormones to assess the associations between appetite regulation and caloric intake was explored as a secondary aim. Mean caloric intake and dietary quality, as measured by HEI-2010 score, did not differ among study visits. Four patterns of caloric intake among the twelve subjects were reported in which all subjects reported caloric intake less than their daily requirements for weight maintenance. Appetite-stimulating hormone, neuropeptide Y concentrations, was positively associated with percent of Estimated Energy Requirements (%EER) consumed.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• appetite
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• SNAP cycle

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to staff at the Center for Human Phenomic Science and our student research assistants, Elizabeth Stulpin, Kathryn E. Kear, Taylor White-Welchen, and Adaobi Obiakor, for their help with study visits and recruitment. We are also grateful to our subjects for sharing their time and experiences.

Additional information

Funding

At the time this study was conducted, Dr. Oberle was a Pediatric Endocrinology Fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was supported by a National Institute of Health institutional training grant (T32DK063688). This work was supported by the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (MO); the University of Pennsylvania Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Provost Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation (MO, EW) and the Investment for the Future Initiative in Community Practices, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (CC, TL). The sources of financial support had no role in the design, analysis, or writing of this article. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.