Identifying nutrition risk among U.S. infants and children with limited financial resources

Inadequate nutrition in childhood can inhibit optimal growth and development, and is also associated with increased risk of chronic diseases later in life. Children living in households with limited financial resources may face a number of challenges to meet nutrient needs through unhealthy eating patterns, which may lead to health inequalities throughout the life-course. Therefore, improving low-income children’s diet would be an effective strategy for their health promotion and disease prevention, and potentially for narrowing health inequalities. The essential step for an efficient intervention would be to identify the unique nutrition risk that low-income children have. Therefore, the overarching aim of research in this dissertation was to identify nutrition risk of U.S. infants and children with low income or food insecurity, or participating in federal nutrition assistance programs using data from nationally representative surveys. An additional aim was to assess whether the inclusion of micronutrient intake from dietary supplements impacts micronutrient inadequacy in children. For low-income infants and young children up to the age of 5 years, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides tailored food packages to improve dietary intake that may be inadequate due to economic constraints. Therefore, it is expected that nutrient intake of WIC participants would be more like those of higher-income nonparticipants and higher than those of lower-income nonparticipants who are likely to be eligible for WIC. The results from the Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study 2016 data analysis supported the hypothesis for several nutrients of concern, although WIC participants were more likely to exceed the recommended limits for sodium and added sugars compared to higher-income nonparticipants. However, higher-income nonparticipants were more likely to use dietary supplements than both WIC participants and lower-income nonparticipants, which can impact total nutrient intake ...