1383-P: Prevalence of Municipal Policies to Help Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk by Providing Environments That Facilitate Healthy Eating and Breastfeeding

Abstract

Introduction: Communities with high diabetes burden may benefit from local policies that facilitate healthy eating and breastfeeding. Methods: Data from the 2021 National Survey of Community-Based Policy and Environmental Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living (CBS HEAL; n=1,927 municipalities) were linked to 2019 county level small area estimates of adult diabetes prevalence (the most recent available) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We estimated the percentage of US municipalities reporting policies to support healthier food access in supermarkets, convenience stores, and farmers markets and policies to support breastfeeding for municipal employees. Chi-Square tests were used to determine if the presence of policies differed by community diabetes burden. Results: Among municipalities with the highest diabetes burden (≥10.1%), 33.8% had a policy for supermarkets, 9.3% had a policy for convenience stores, and 62.9% had a policy for farmers markets and the percent of municipalities reporting these policies did not differ significantly by diabetes burden. The percentage of municipalities that provided breastfeeding employees time and space to pump breast milk differed by diabetes burden (p=0.006) and ranged from 47.7% among those with the highest diabetes burden to 69.3% among municipalities with the lowest burden (≤6.5%). Among municipalities with the highest diabetes burden, 38.2% provided any paid maternity leave, and 19.9% provided ≥8 weeks of maternity leave. Frequency of maternity leave policies did not differ significantly by diabetes burden. Conclusion: Among US municipalities healthy food retail policies did not differ by diabetes burden. Less than half of municipalities with the greatest burden reported policies to support breastfeeding for municipal employees. Opportunities exist to improve support for healthy eating and breastfeeding among communities with high burden of diabetes. Disclosure S.J.Onufrak: None. D.Galuska: None. S.L.Pierce: None. C.A.Macgowan: None. L.Moore: None.