Matthew C Lohman, Anwar T Merchant and Catherine Y Chi
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an initiative that provides food benefits to low-income Americans to help them afford groceries. Claims that use of SNAP contributes to bad health outcomes appear often in research and the media. Some studies have found that people who use SNAP have worse diet quality, higher bodyweight and poorer cognitive performance than those who don’t. Such findings are sometimes used, implicitly or explicitly, to justify more restrictive eligibility rules, work requirements or other policies that could reduce access to the program.
But a closer look at the evidence suggests we should be more cautious in how we interpret it. Our recent study in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that, by using methods designed to deal with hidden bias, apparent relationships between SNAP use and negative outcomes like cognitive decline largely disappear.
Continue reading “Does using SNAP harm cognitive health? Why we should care about better analytical methods”
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