Research
Adherence
Restricting the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) using SNAP funds, when combined with fruit and vegetable incentives, significantly amplifies cardiovascular disease prevention and healthcare cost savings compared to fruit and vegetable incentives alone.
Advocate for policies that not only incentivize healthy food purchases but also restrict the use of SNAP benefits for sugar-sweetened beverages. This combination yields much larger health benefits and cost savings than incentives alone.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Adding SSB restriction increased gains to approximately 797,900 CVD events prevented, 2.11 million QALYs gained, and $39.16 billion in healthcare costs saved.
Why this rating
Based on microsimulation modeling.
Source
Cost-effectiveness of financial incentives and disincentives for improving food purchases and health through the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): A microsimulation study
Dariush Mozaffarian et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2018
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002661
unknown · n=14500000Cited 142×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Implementing a 30% financial incentive for fruits and vegetables (F&V) within the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) increases F&V intake and prevents cardiovascular disease events, resulting in net healthcare cost savings over a lifetime.Moderate
- A comprehensive incentive/disincentive program (SNAP-plus) that subsidizes multiple healthy food groups (F&V, nuts, whole grains, fish, plant-based oils) and disincentivizes unhealthy groups (SSBs, junk food, processed meats) yields the largest health gains and net cost savings among the tested interventions.Moderate
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