Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Insecurity in an Urban Emergency Department Patient Population.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Food insecurity (FI) has been associated with adverse health outcomes and increased healthcare expenditures. Many families experienced reduced access to food during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A 2019 study revealed that the pre-pandemic prevalence of FI at an urban, tertiary care hospital's emergency department (ED) was 35.3%. We sought to evaluate whether the prevalence of FI in the same ED patient population increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We performed a single-center, observational, survey-based study. Surveys assessing for FI were administered to clinically stable patients presenting to the ED over 25 consecutive weekdays from November-December 2020.

Results

Of 777 eligible patients, 379 (48.8%) were enrolled; 158

SUBMITTER: Enayati D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10047745 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature