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Association Between Food Insecurity and Diet Quality Among Early Care and Education Providers in the Pennsylvania Head Start Program

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Figure.

Radar plots of Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2015 and Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) 2010 food components for both food secure and food insecure early childhood education providers. The radial axes represent median scores for food components graphed as percentages of each component’s total maximum score. The radar plots’ outer edges represent a maximum score of 100%, while the centers represent a minimum score of 0%. Plot A illustrates trends from HEI-2015. Total fruit represents all forms of fruit, including fruit juice; whole fruit represents all forms of fruit except fruit juice. Plot B illustrates trends from AHEI-2010. The median score for food secure was 53.1. For food insecure, the median score was 49.4. A higher score indicates a higher diet quality. Sugary beverages are any beverage with natural or added sugar.

Plot Components Overall, % Food Secure, % Food Insecure, %
A. HEI-2015
   Median 61.4 62.2 59.9
   Total vegetables 80.8 88.4 74.9
   Greens and beans 81.5 84.5 76.8
   Total fruit 65.3 65.8 58.7
   Whole fruit 100.0 100.0 84.7
   Whole grains 32.2 64.8 61.3
   Dairy 69.9 68.2 81.9
   Total protein foods 100.0 100.0 100.0
   Seafood and plant protein 94.8 100.0 70.9
   Fatty acids ratio 37.1 38.0 34.8
   Sodium 31.3 29.8 34.4
   Refined grains 93.0 95.0 88.0
   Added sugars 80.9 86.1 73.2
   Saturated fats 46.4 47.4 45.2
B. AHEI-2010
   Median overall 47.8 53.1 49.4
   Total vegetables 29 30.7 25.3
   Total fruit 40.5 41.6 38.2
   Whole grains 21.2 21.5 20.6
   Nuts and legumes 53.7 54.7 51.5
   Fish fatty acids 33.9 36.7 27.9
   Polyunsaturated fat 68.8 69.9 66.5
   Sodium 47.6 48.3 46.1
   Sugary beverages 42.6 46.2 35
   Red meat 52.6 54.2 48.9
   Trans fat 87.8 88.5 86.5

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