(P28-037-23) Student and School Characteristics Modify the Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) on Student Dietary Outcomes

Objectives: SNAP-Ed healthy eating, active living school-based interventions have been shown to improve students’ dietary practices. Less is known about whether outcomes differ by student and school characteristics. We examined if race, gender, school urbanicity, school Free and Reduced-Price Meal (FRPM) status, and total enrollment modified SNAP-Ed's impact on student dietary intake.

Methods: Pre-post online surveys assessing past day dietary intake were completed by 4^th-5^th grade students (n_intervention=2115, n_comparison=1102) in 69 California schools during the 2021-2022 school year. Multilevel, linear regression was used to determine if student race, gender, school urbanicity, total enrollment and/or FRPM modify the impact of SNAP-Ed programming on diet.

Results: Preliminary findings show school FRPM status and urbanicity modified SNAP-Ed’s impact on fruit and vegetable intake. As FRPM percentage increased, SNAP-Ed efforts led to greater increases in total fruit intake, (β[95%CI]: 1.36[0.38, 2.33]) and whole fruit, excluding 100% fruit juice, intake (0.95[0.26, 1.63]). SNAP-Ed efforts also led to greater increases in total vegetable intake in urban schools compared to non-urban schools (β[95%CI]: 0.67[0.15, 1.20]). While there was not a significant overall effect of SNAP-Ed on student water intake, gender did modify this association, with SNAP-Ed interventions having a more positive effect among boys than girls (β[95%CI]: -0.14[-0.23, -0.05]). Student race/ethnicity and school total enrollment did not significantly modify SNAP-Ed's impact on student diet.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that SNAP-Ed may be more effective at improving eating behaviors among students attending urban and high FRPM schools. Greater effectiveness at high FRPM schools (i.e., lower income schools) may reduce health disparities. Greater effectiveness at urban schools may indicate a need to tailor interventions to the needs of rural schools.

Funding Sources: The project was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program- Education through a contract with the California Department of Public Health.