impact of lack of access to diapers

This article was recently published by:

Objectives. To document the collective effort of diaper banks in the United States and to estimate the percentage of low-income children whose diaper need is met through these efforts.

Methods. For each state, we compared the number of children younger than 4 years in families living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level with the number of children served by diaper banks in each state. We collected data reporting all 2016 activities from diaper banks (n = 262) via survey from January to March 2017.

Results. In each state, the percentage of children experiencing diaper need that received assistance from a diaper bank ranged from 0% to 16% per month.

Conclusions. The findings from this study highlight that a small proportion of low-income families accessed diapers through the existing community-based safety net provided by a national network of nonprofit diaper banks.

Public Health Implications. Policies at the federal, state, and municipal level are needed to alleviate this consequence of poverty for children and their families.
[Please click here to read more.]