Becoming new parents increases product purchases

In the United States, children and adults consume very little fruit and vegetables, exposing them to poor nutrition and adverse health consequences. A study to describe the family environment of meals and to badess the badociations between consumption of fruits, vegetables and adult fats revealed that new parents increased their spending on products in middle and high income households.

This study used data accessed via the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel dataset. The current panel includes more than 40,000 volunteer participants to track their purchases.

Panelists use home scanners to record all purchases. The investment categories include dry groceries, dairy products, frozen foods and fresh produce. Nielsen also collects statistical data on participants, for example, the number of children, their professional status, level of education, etc.

Lead author Betsy Q. Cliff, PhD Candidate in the Department of Health Management and Policy School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA , said: "Although adult dietary preferences are considered relatively stable, major life events, such as: becoming parents can serve as a signal for behavioral change. This creates opportunities for nutritional education programs aimed at increasing the consumption of products. "

The authors used demographic data from 2007 to 2015 to determine that 508 panel households became parents during the period under study. The grocery budgets of these families were tracked to determine overall production, fruits, vegetables, fresh produce, canned goods, frozen products and products with another type of storage.

Getting a child has increased the percentage of a household's product grocery budget; on average, households before parenthood spent 10% of their budget on production, rising to 12% once the household had children. However, this increase only occurred in households with incomes above 185% of the US federal poverty line.

Among families with incomes below 185% of the federal poverty line, there was no detectable change in purchases of fresh produce. Although purchases of fruits and vegetables have increased, fresh fruit has increased more. There was no detectable change in purchases of canned, frozen or other products.

Although an increase in expenditures was identified, the factors leading to an increase in expenditures were not explored in this study. It is not known if the change in parental spending results from an increase in quality over quantity. Other limitations of the data include the fact that they do not include food eaten outside the home, it is possible that not all purchases were digitized and that the price of the products does not reflect any discount due to vouchers or coupons.

The study is published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.