Relationship Between Grocery Shopping Frequency and Home- and Individual-Level Diet Quality Among Low-Income Racial or Ethnic Minority Households With Preschool-Aged Children.

Background: The home food environment can shape the diets of young children. However, little is known about modifiable factors that influence home food availability and dietary intake.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between grocery shopping frequency with home- and individual-level diet quality.
Design: This was a secondary, cross-sectional analyses of data from the Study on Children's Home Food Availability Using TechNology. Data were collected in the homes of participants from November 2014 through March 2016.
Participants/settings: A purposive sample of 97 low-income African American and Hispanic or Latinx parent-child dyads residing in Chicago, IL, enrolled in the study.
Main Outcome Measures: The main outcomes were home- and individual-level diet quality. Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) scores were calculated from home food inventory data collected in participants' homes to assess home-level diet quality. To assess individual-level diet quality, HEI-2010 scores were based on multiple 24-hour diet recalls from parent-child dyads.
Statistical Analyses: Grocery shopping frequency was examined in relation to diet quality at the home and individual levels. Grocery shopping frequency was defined as the number of times households shopped on a monthly basis (ie, once a month, twice a month, 3 times a month, or 4 times or more a month). Multivariable linear regression analysis, controlling for covariates, tested the relationships between grocery shopping frequency and HEI-2010 total and component scores at the home and individual levels.
Results: Grocery shopping frequency was positively associated with home-level HEI-2010 scores for total diet, whole grains, and empty calories (higher scores reflect better diet quality) and with individual-level HEI-2010 scores for total and whole fruit (parents only), vegetables (children only), and sodium (children only).
Conclusions: Grocery shopping frequency was associated with multiple dimensions of diet quality at the home and individual levels. These results offer a potential strategy to intervene on home food availability and individual dietary intake.
(Copyright © 2020 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)