Missed Opportunities to Address SNAP for Nonenrolled Children.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Primary care is an important setting to identify and support children who are eligible but not enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (the SNAP Gap), although there is concern that these programs may be limited in reach. We sought to identify patterns of health care use among eligible but unenrolled children.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the 2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We identified 975 SNAP eligible/nonenrolled children with household incomes less than 200% of federal poverty level. SNAP eligibility was modeled using income, employment, and household composition and SNAP enrollment was self-reported. We categorized health care encounters across 9 visit types and calculated annual primary care attendance r

SUBMITTER: Geanacopoulos AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12676578 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature