Snack Consumption and Food Security Among College Students in the US During COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVES: During COVID-19 pandemic, most students have been confined to their home. This situation may affect snack consumption and food security. Our objective was to determine the associations among snack intake, snack accessibility and availability, household income, and food security status in US overweight college students aged 18–24 years. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was assessed through online self-reported questionnaires via Qualtrics from June 2020 to January 2021. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the frequency, percentages, and average of socio-demographic data, including household income and food security status and snack intake data. The associations among these variables were determined by logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 157 students completed the survey but only 145 completed all questions in the survey. Most students were female (84.8%), Hispanics (37.2%), with a mean age of 21.5 ± 2.0 years. The majority reported a household income of <$50,000 (60.0%) and having a high food security status (66.2%). Average snack consumption was 2.3 ± 1.1 times per day with the highest common reported frequency of snacking 2–3 times per day (61.0%). Most reported that they knew how to choose a healthy snack (85.5%) but most (73.1%) reported that unhealthy snacks (i.e., chips, crackers, cookies, candy, chocolate, etc.) were more accessible and available to them than healthy snacks (i.e., fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grain, low sugary bars/cookies/crackers, etc.). After adjusting for age and gender, those with the highest food security had significantly lower odds of choosing unhealthy snacks (OR 0.05; 95% CI 0.01, 0.36) as compared to those with the lowest food security. Also, those with lower income (<$50,000) had significantly higher odds of choosing unhealthy snacks as compared to higher income (OR 3.35; 95% CI 1.51, 7.41). However, food security and income had no association with knowledge of identifying healthy or unhealthy snacks. CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of college students, income and food security status was not related to their ability to know how to choose healthy snacks but low food security and low income were significantly related to the accessibility and availability of unhealthy snacks. FUNDING SOURCES: Internal funds from Florida International University.