In 2020, in 7.6% of all households, children were food insecure.1 Childhood food insecurity is associated with adverse outcomes, including anxiety, depression, poorer diet quality, higher rates of diabetes and obesity, and lower academic performance.2-4 The purpose of this survey study was to compare current trends (2015-2019) in chronic food insecurity with trends from 20 years ago (1999-2003). [JAMA Nework]
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Results
Figure 1 shows that almost half of the 12.1% of families that ever reported food insecurity from 1999 to 2003 experienced at least 1 additional wave of food insecurity (5.3% of all families). From 2015 to 2019, 4.5% of all families reported food insecurity in all 3 waves, more than doubling the rate from 1999 to 2003 (2.1%). Low-income families with children experienced higher levels of chronic food insecurity compared with other families from 1999 to 2003 (8.8% of low-income families with children vs 2.1% of all families and 3.7% of all families with children). Chronic food insecurity was even higher from 2015 to 2019 (10.9% of low-income families with children vs 4.5% of all families and 4.8% of all families with children).
Of the 31.2% of all families who reported NHFS status in at least 1 wave from 2015 to 2019 (Figure 2), 59.3% reported NHFS status in at least 1 additional wave (18.5% of all families). Among low-income families with children, only 33.1% always reported high food security, with 25.0% of low-income families with children never reporting high food security during the period.
Alhough the PSID has shown lower cross-sectional rates of food insecurity compared with the benchmark Current Population Survey across time, it remains the only nationally representative, longitudinal panel data on food security collected, to our knowledge.6 Although the HFSSM is used in both surveys, the PSID-based trends of chronic food insecurity could be underestimated.
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