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Objective: Several studies suggest that during the early pandemic, amidst socioeconomic instability, children from underserved families were more likely to resort to consuming cheaper, lower-quality foods with longer shelf lives. This study investigated the change in unhealthy food consumption across different phases (pre, early, mid) of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether the strength of association between unhealthy food consumption and household socioeconomic disadvantage (HSED) varied across phases of the pandemic., Methods: This study utilized serial cross-sectional data collected from low-income families enrolled in a school-based food co-op, Brighter Bites. Secondary data analysis included 5,384 surveys from families who had complete data: 3422 pre-pandemic, 944 from the early pandemic, and 1,018 mid-pandemic. Outcome measures included sugary food intake and convenience/fast food intake, each of which was operationalized as a scale using pre-validated items from the surveys. HSED was operationalized as a composite of parent employment, parent education, food insecurity, and participation in government programs; responses were categorized into low, medium, and high HSED groups for analysis. We examined the interaction between HSED and time period to explore how HSED and its association with dietary measures changed over the course of the pandemic., Results: A significant linear negative trend, i.e., a decrease in consumption from pre-to-mid-pandemic period was seen in sugary food intake ( p  < 0.001), but not in convenience food intake. In data pooled across time-periods, both sugary food and convenience/fast food consumption were inversely associated with HSED, and low unhealthy food consumption was observed among high-disadvantage groups. No significant interaction between time period and HSED was observed on either scale. However, the post-regression estimates from the adjusted interaction model showed a significant association between convenience/fast food consumption and HSED in pre- and mid-pandemic periods., Conclusion: The study highlights the nuances of socioeconomic dynamics on the diet behaviors of children from low-income families during a natural disaster., Competing Interests: Shreela Sharma serves on the board of directors of Brighter Bites 501c3 nonprofit organization. This is an unpaid board position. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Parthasarathy, Ranjit, Chuang, Markham, Pomeroy, Noyola, Ernest and Sharma.)

Background: We present the conceptual framework, design, and study measures of Nurturing Healthy Teachers, a quasi-experimental study to examine the short- and long-term effectiveness of the Nurturing Healthy Teachers (NHT) nutrition intervention on food insecurity, dietary behaviors, mental health and cardiometabolic health among preschool and elementary school teachers., Methods: A convenience sample of 28 elementary schools with pre-kindergarten and elementary classrooms were recruited in Houston, Texas. Nurturing Healthy Teacher intervention includes Brighter Bites, an evidence-based coordinated school health program that combines access to fresh produce and nutrition education, and Create Healthy Futures, a web-based nutrition education program that targets nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy, mindfulness, and social support to create healthy habits among teachers. The primary outcome is food insecurity. Secondary outcomes include diet quality, mental health, and cardiometabolic health. Metabolic markers and skin carotenoid levels were assessed using in-person assessments, while all other measures were obtained via questionnaire., Results: At baseline, most of the participants were female, 63 % identified as Hispanic, were highly educated, and had a mean age of 42.6 years. Overall, 50 % of teachers were classified as being obese and 20 % had high cholesterol. At baseline teachers had a mean HbA1c (%) of 5.6 %. Moderate to severe depression was experienced by 18 % of teachers and 23 % of teachers experienced moderate to severe anxiety., Conclusions: The results of this study will inform next steps towards future implementation and evaluation of teacher-focused interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr. Shreela Sharma serves on the board of directors of Brighter Bites 501c3 non-profit organization. This is an unpaid board position. No other authors report any conflicts of interest.., (© 2024 The Authors.)