Association of a primary care-based mobile food pantry with child body mass index: A propensity score matched cohort study

ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that children in Food FARMacia-a six-month food insecurity intervention from May 2019 to January 2020-would have smaller age-adjusted, sex-specific body mass index (BMIz) gains than matched counterparts. MethodsIn this proof-of-concept study, we performed a difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis of a propensity-score matched cohort among paediatric primary care patients aged z from standardized clinical anthropometric measurements. We examined differences in child BMIz change between Food FARMacia participants and matched non-participants. ResultsAmong 454 children with household food insecurity, 265 were included, 44 of whom were in Food FARMacia. Mean child age was 1.48 (SD 1.46) years and most reported Hispanic/Latino ethnicity (84.5%). After propensity score matching, children in Food FARMacia had smaller increases in BMIz (unadjusted DiD -0.28 [-0.52, -0.04]) compared to non-participants in the follow-up period. After adjusting for potential confounders, findings remained statistically significant [adjusted DiD, -0.31 units (95% CI: -0.54, -0.08)]. ConclusionsIn this proof-of-concept cohort study of children in households with food insecurity, a paediatric primary care-based mobile food pantry program was associated with improvement in child BMIz over 6 months.