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By Lauren A. Clay, associate professor, Emergency Health Services, UMBC and Emily Belarmino, University of Vermont

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a third of Massachusetts households with a child under 5 didn’t have enough diapers to change their child as often as needed, according to our survey. A baby without enough diapers might have more doctor visits for diaper rash and urinary tract infections. But we also found a link between diaper need and other concerns, like depression and chronic illness, that are less obvious and seemingly unrelated.

Our data for this study came from an online survey of Massachusetts residents led by The Greater Boston Food Bank from October 2020 and to January 2021. To compile, analyze and interpret the data, we had help from former food bank volunteer and Harvard biostatistics student Nick Birk, along with the food bank’s epidemiologist, Rachel Zack.

We looked at more than 3,000 responses from participants in the food bank’s survey. Of those, we selected the 353 respondents who reported having a child age 4 or under using diapers. We then asked them specifically, “If you have children in diapers, do you ever feel that you do not have enough diapers to change them as often as you would like?”

Homes without enough diapers were also more likely to have depression and chronic illness among family members. MZiello/iStock via Getty Images Plus

We found that 36% of families with young children went without enough diapers during the pandemic.

But diaper need is about more than bare baby bottoms. We found that in households with the greatest diaper need there is also a greater likelihood of other significant concerns. For example, we found that people who reported diaper need were also more likely to report symptoms of depression or living in a home where someone had a chronic illness.

Previous research has highlighted the stress of needing but being unable to get diapers for a baby. The link between diaper need and chronic illness adds substantial evidence that households dealing with health issues are more likely to struggle with other hardships like food insecurity and unmet medical needs.

Among those at greater risk of not having enough diapers are parents or caregivers under 26 years of age, Latino parents or caregivers and people with less than a high school education. This might be related to the relatively limited resources these parents and caregivers have to draw upon to meet their daily needs.

Why it matters

Diapers are an essential child care need and a significant expense for families with young children. The National Diaper Bank Network defines “diaper need” as “lacking a sufficient supply of diapers to keep an infant or child clean, dry and healthy.” The group estimates that the average cost of a month’s supply of diapers is US$80-$100. Public aid programs for families with low incomes generally do not provide diapers.

We had previously identified links between diaper need and food-related hardship. Our newer study sheds light on the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic and brings more income-related findings, such as the fact that diaper need is more common in households where someone lost a job. We also found more need for diapers in households with a 2019 income of less than $50,000 than in those with higher incomes. Speaking of income, our findings show that pandemic diaper need persisted despite most U.S. households’ receiving federal economic stimulus payments and diaper banks’ expanding distribution. Without these factors, there might have been more families in the state without enough diapers.

What still isn’t known

We used mathematical weighting to get data representing the Massachusetts population. But we haven’t yet looked into diaper need in other states or nationally.

It’s also not yet clear what the most effective solutions are for families lacking enough diapers for their babies. We have not measured the effectiveness of diaper banks or other diaper distribution models. Legislation proposed in Massachusetts would create a diaper distribution program or give qualifying families $30 to purchase diapers each month.

Congress also has considered creating federal funding for diaper distribution programs, in 2019 and again in 2021. And in February, lawmakers proposed allowing families to cover the cost of diapers with health savings or flexible spending accounts. If these programs become reality, studying their impact and effectiveness could prove useful.

Previous research already has found, however, that providing diapers to families needing them has benefits beyond the obvious. In a 2017 study of families with low incomes, life in their households improved when they received diapers from a local diaper bank. Parents reported more positive moods, along with improved health and happiness of their children. Diaper distribution increased family members’ attendance at school, work and child care centers. And families were also able to divert household finances toward other basic needs, including utilities and medical care.

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Emily Belarmino, Assistant Professor of Public Health Nutrition, University of Vermont and Lauren A. Clay, Associate Professor of Emergency Health Services, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Header image: Thirty-six percent of surveyed families with young children said they did not have enough diapers during the pandemic. Tony Arruzza/Corbis Documentary via Getty Images

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

St. Patrick’s Day might not be known as a day celebrating love and lifelong devotion, and True Grit’s may not come to mind as the most romantic place to eat, but for Marcie and David Zisow the booth in UMBC’s dining hall was just perfect.

The Zisows will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary later this year, but on March 17, 2022, the couple took the time to mark the 53rd anniversary of their first conversation. “We’ve always celebrated both dates,” say Marcie and David, who first spoke to each other at a shared table in UMBC’s commissary (predating True Grit’s by several decades). She was eating a tuna sandwich packed by her mother, and he had a homemade PB&J. Marcie ’72, French, M.A. ’84, instructional development systems, a retired educator, and David ‘71, mathematics, a retired OB-GYN, laugh now at how that day played out. 

“We are Jewish,” says Marcie, “but my mother, she always wanted us to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. So I put on this ugly green plaid skirt. I really did look ugly, but that’s all I had that was green.” David admits that he was looking for a date to the mixer that Saturday night as a rebound from his previous UMBC girlfriend.

The conversation did not start off well. As Marcie retells it, “At one o’clock the whole table gets up to go to their next class, and he stays there. He was making me nervous. He starts talking, and the next thing I know, he’s asking me to the dance.” Marcie knew of David, a pre-med student who had recently starred in UMBC’s musical production of “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” (“She didn’t even come see it,” David says as an aside. “I didn’t have a ride!” responds Marcie in what must be a 53-year-old conversation.)

Marcie says now, in retrospect, she surprised herself by being brutally honest with David. “What you have to understand is, I grew up in a Jewish community, in a Jewish household. I never had to say anything to anybody about being Jewish, we all understood. So I told him, ‘I don’t date people who aren’t Jewish.'” David immediately erased her fears but sharing his own Jewish heritage with her. Marcie said she didn’t waste a minute, but ran to the nearest payphone to call the girlfriend she was supposed to ride to the mixer with to cancel their plans.

Looking back, David can’t believe their luck. “The dance was an amazing evening. We just had such a good time together. We were so in tune with one another. I knew she was the one.”

The Surprise

The Zisows have been telling this tale to their four grown children for so long, that Jamie Silverman, their youngest, can tell it by heart as well. She was inspired to create a surprise celebration for her parents, recreating their meet-cute, albeit at True Grits and with slightly upgraded fare from their home-brought sandwiches. UMBC Dining immediately offered up their services, including baking an anniversary cake, playing music from the ’60s and ’70s, and creating a slideshow of Zisow pictures to show on the screens of the dining hall.

Silverman eventually had to reveal to her parents the big surprise before she drove them to campus. Arriving during a spring shower didn’t dampen their enthusiasm for the date though, and both alums had big smiles on their faces when they saw the lunch set up. 

Going steady for 50+ years

The Zisows reminisce fondly on UMBC, not just for allowing them to meet, but because of how formative their time here was. “This is an old story,” says David. “When you’re the son of immigrants, you’re kind of an outsider. You’re raised differently. You have different attitudes. When I came to UMBC, I found a group of people that were completely accepting. So in the theater group, I was the med-school nerd. But that was okay.”

For Marcie, UMBC left her with lifelong friendships, but also with a career she couldn’t have imagined. When she started college, she wanted to be a hairdresser, but her father strongly encouraged her to apply for a teaching scholarship that would require two years of teaching following graduation. “I didn’t want to be a teacher because my sister was a teacher, but then it turned out that I loved it. I taught for over 20 years,” she says. Eventually Marcie returned to UMBC to earn her master’s in 1984. 

Seated at a booth in the dining hall, enjoying chicken Caesar salads while Zooming with their two children who couldn’t make the in-person event, the Zisows are feeling pretty lucky. “We just took a chance,” says David. “I just knew from that moment that she was the girl for me. And then a couple weeks later I asked her to go steady, and the rest is history, as they say.”

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All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11, unless otherwise noted.