The project will consist of a series of analyses of Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP) data from a sample of more than 10,000 children age 3 and under. The data file links data collected from interviews of the children's caregivers with medical record surveillance data. Interview data includes the 18 questions in the food security survey module, sociodemographic information on the child and the family, program participation, daycare arrangements, education and employment of adults in the household, income, health insurance, and housing characteristics.

The investigation will proceed in four phases:

1. Bivariate analyses of associations among food assistance program participation, food security, child and maternal health outcomes, benefit changes, child's age, birth weight, daycare status, and race/ethnicity, caregiver's immigrant status, education, and employment, and the household's composition, family type, income, health insurance coverage, and housing characteristics.
2. Multivariate logistic regression analyses of the associations of participation in the Food Stamp Program, WIC, and other public assistance programs with food security/hunger status, controlling for relevant covariates.
3. Multivariate logistic regression analyses of the associations of household food security/hunger status with maternal physical and mental health outcomes, controlling for relevant confounding factors.
4. Multivariate logistic regression analyses of the associations of household food security/hunger status with child health and development outcomes, controlling for relevant confounding factors.