Promoting Healthful Beverage Choices among Households Enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Abstract

To implement a multi-component campaign that promotes healthful beverage choices and reduces the intake of sugary drinks. The goal of this program is to increase the likelihood that parents will monitor and limit their children's intake of sugary drinks. To achieve this goal, a multi-component campaign was developed based on the principles of social marketing and the social-ecological theory. Rethink Your Drink Nevada includes a direct-mail intervention to eligible SNAP households; provision of patient educational materials to primary health care providers and dentists; and a print media campaign. Digital resources include a newsletter, website and Facebook page. Target audience was SNAP households with one or more children between the ages of 6 and 12. The findings presented here focus on the mail survey results of 1,000 randomly-selected SNAP households regarding the direct-mail intervention conducted in Washoe County, NV. Among parents who had reportedly read “some or nearly everything” of the materials (66%), most found them interesting to read (87%), indicated they had learned something new (69%), and had used one or more of the suggested strategies (94%). They were also more likely to monitor and limit their children's intake of sugary drinks compared to those parents’ who did not recall receiving the materials or read none or very little of them (p < .05). These findings suggest that a direct-mail intervention may be effective in changing parents’ behaviors that serve to reduce children's intake of sugary drinks. In addition, sending educational materials via the United States Postal Service remains a viable option to reach SNAP households with nutrition information.