Study of Nutrition and Activity in Child Care Settings II (SNACS II) Data

<b>SNACS II Data </b>covers Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) policies and practices; opportunities for physical activity; nutritional quality of meals and snacks served; dietary intakes and plate waste; child and family characteristics of participants (including children’s weight status); costs and revenues of CACFP meals and snacks; infant wellness and infant feeding policies and practices.<b>Those topic cover research objectives including:</b>Objective 1. Describe the characteristics of providers participating in CACFP; the CACFP environment; providers’ menu planning, meal purchasing, and food service practices; and providers’ wellness policies and practices.Objective 2. Determine the food, calorie, and nutrient content of CACFP meals and snacks and the overall nutritional quality of these meals and snacks.Objective 3a. Describe children’s usual food, calorie, and nutrient intake during childcare days and non-childcare days.Objective 3b. Describe characteristics of children and families served by CACFP providers, including children’s body mass index, household food security, and household participation in food assistance programsObjective 3c. Describe characteristics of teens who participate in CACFP through Before and After School programs (BASs) and the food content of meals and snacks offered to teens in these settings.Objective 4. Assess and describe plate waste in CACFP.Objective 5. Examine infant feeding practices, infant food intake, and infants’ activity levels while in childcare.Objective 6. Determine the cost of producing an average CACFP breakfast, lunch, supper, and snack.<b>Processing methods and equipment used</b>Stata<b>Study date(s) and duration Data Collection Period:</b>January 2023 – July 2023 Data collection began in January and ran through July 2023. This included the self-administered provider, menu, and infant menu surveys; observations; height and weight measurements; dietary recalls; teen surveys; infant food intake forms; and cost interviews. In conjunction with on-site data collection, we interviewed parents over the phone. Some parents of teens also had the option of completing their interview on the web. On-site data collection concluded in June 2023, though we followed up with providers and sponsors about missing or uncompleted instruments through July 2023.<b>Study spatial scale (size of replicates and spatial scale of study area)</b>The respondent universe for SNACS-II includes (a) the 48 contiguous States and the District of Columbia, (b) CACFP programs and their sponsoring organizations, if applicable, from sampled States, and (c) children and their parents or guardians who are enrolled in sampled programs.<b>Level of true replication</b>N/A<b>Sampling precision (within-replicate sampling or pseudoreplication)</b>The overall objective of the sample design was to produce nationally representative samples of CACFP programs for PY 2022–2023. The SNACS-II sample design builds on the SNACS-I design to ensure the results of the two studies are comparable and meet required levels of statistical precision while minimizing data collection costs and respondent burden.A multistage stratified cluster sampling design was used. Because sampling frames for CACFP programs can be provided only at the State level, the first stage of selection, also known as the primary sampling unit (PSU), was the State. In the second stage, to make data collection more efficient, sampling units (SSUs) within the selected and participating States based on a sample of core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) and non-CBSA counties were constructed and sampled. In the third stage, CACFP programs within sampled SSUs were sampled. A sample of CACFP programs to complete the Provider Survey and Menu Survey and a subsample to participate in onsite data collection was selected.<b>Level of subsampling (number and repeat or within-replicate sampling)</b>In the first stage, a national probability sample of 25 States and 7 backup States from the sampling frame of the 48 contiguous States and the District of Columbia was selected. In the second stage, the authors began by creating geographically defined secondary sampling units (SSUs) and then selected a stratified probability proportional to size (PPS) systematic sample of SSUs within the sampled States. Following the design for SNACS-I, we sampled 81 SSUs—60 urban (CBSA) SSUs and 21 rural (non-CBSA) SSUs.This oversampled the rural SSUs to help ensure 25 percent of sampled programs would be in rural SSUs. See the following, A.1. Sample selection and weights, for a more detailed description of the subsampling procedures https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/ear-snacsII-appA-methods.pdf<b>Study design (before–after, control–impacts, time series, before–after-control–impacts)</b>Nationally-representative, Cross-sectional, sample, descriptive study.<b>Description of any data manipulation, modeling, or statistical analysis undertaken</b>Across objectives, the analysis approaches included descriptive cross-tabulations of percentages, means, and occasionally medians. The researchers adjusted estimates for the complex sample design and weighting and tested for significant differences between provider types for a subset of RQs under each objective. For comparisons between SNACS-I and SNACS-II, the analysis used SNACS-I analysis files to reproduce relevant estimates and standard errors and then conducted two-tailed t-tests to test for significance. The study defined imprecise point estimates as having a standard error that is more than 30 percent of the mean—in other words, a relative standard error of &gt; 0.30. These are flagged in the analytic tables with the ^ symbol. Estimates with an effective sample size of &lt; 30 are flagged with the ~ symbol. Estimates with only one or two observations are suppressed to minimize the risk of identifying children with rare characteristics.<b>Description of any gaps in the data or other limiting factors</b>See A.6. Study limitations in https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/ear-snacsII-appA-methods.pdf<b>These data are not published elsewhere. The public webpage that provides information about the study is </b><b>https://www.fns.usda.gov/research/cacfp/snacs2</b>