New parents increase spending on products in high-income households

In the United States, children and adults eat too few fruits and vegetables, exposing them to a diet of poor quality and adverse health consequences. A new study in the Journal of Nutritional Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, revealed that new parents increased their spending on products in middle- and high-income households.

Although adult dietary preferences are considered relatively stable, major life events, such as becoming parents, may indicate a change in behavior. This creates opportunities for nutritional education programs aimed at increasing the consumption of products. "

Lead author Betsy Q. Cliff, PhD candidate in the Department of Management and Health Policy, School of Public Health of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

This study used data available in the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel dataset. The panel, which is ongoing, includes more than 40,000 participants who volunteer to track their purchases. Panelists use home scanners to record all purchases. The categories of purchases include dry groceries, dairy products, frozen foods and fresh produce. Nielsen also collects demographic information about participants, such as the number of children, their professional status, their education, and so on.

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. The obtaining of a child has resulted in an increase in the percentage of a household's grocery budget spent on products; on average, households before parenthood spent 10% of their budget on production, rising to 12% once the household had children. However, this increase was found only in households with incomes above 185% of the US federal poverty line (approximately $ 39,000 for a family of three in 2019). 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 increased, fresh fruit experienced the largest increase. 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 variation in parental spending results from an increase in quality in relation to the quantity of products. 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 Product prices do not reflect any discounts due to vouchers or coupons.

Betsy Cliff pointed out: "The increase in high-income household purchases suggests that additional support is needed to help new low-income parents increase production as part of their family's diet." .