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Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased food insecurity in the United States (US). The objective of this study was to understand the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among low-income adults in the US as social distancing measures began to be implemented. On 19–24 March 2020 we fielded...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352694/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32498323 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061648 |
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author | Wolfson, Julia A. Leung, Cindy W. |
author_facet | Wolfson, Julia A. Leung, Cindy W. |
author_sort | Wolfson, Julia A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased food insecurity in the United States (US). The objective of this study was to understand the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among low-income adults in the US as social distancing measures began to be implemented. On 19–24 March 2020 we fielded a national, web-based survey (53% response rate) among adults with <250% of the federal poverty line in the US (N = 1478). Measures included household food security status and COVID-19-related basic needs challenges. Overall, 36% of low-income adults in the US were food secure, 20% had marginal food security, and 44% were food insecure. Less than one in five (18.8%) of adults with very low food security reported being able to comply with public health recommendations to purchase two weeks of food at a time. For every basic needs challenge, food-insecure adults were significantly more likely to report facing that challenge, with a clear gradient effect based on severity of food security. The short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are magnifying existing disparities and disproportionately affecting low-income, food-insecure households that already struggle to meet basic needs. A robust, comprehensive policy response is needed to mitigate food insecurity as the pandemic progresses. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7352694 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73526942020-07-21 Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults Wolfson, Julia A. Leung, Cindy W. Nutrients Article The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased food insecurity in the United States (US). The objective of this study was to understand the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among low-income adults in the US as social distancing measures began to be implemented. On 19–24 March 2020 we fielded a national, web-based survey (53% response rate) among adults with <250% of the federal poverty line in the US (N = 1478). Measures included household food security status and COVID-19-related basic needs challenges. Overall, 36% of low-income adults in the US were food secure, 20% had marginal food security, and 44% were food insecure. Less than one in five (18.8%) of adults with very low food security reported being able to comply with public health recommendations to purchase two weeks of food at a time. For every basic needs challenge, food-insecure adults were significantly more likely to report facing that challenge, with a clear gradient effect based on severity of food security. The short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are magnifying existing disparities and disproportionately affecting low-income, food-insecure households that already struggle to meet basic needs. A robust, comprehensive policy response is needed to mitigate food insecurity as the pandemic progresses. MDPI 2020-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7352694/ /pubmed/32498323 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061648 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Wolfson, Julia A. Leung, Cindy W. Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title | Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title_full | Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title_fullStr | Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title_full_unstemmed | Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title_short | Food Insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in Early Effects for US Adults |
title_sort | food insecurity and covid-19: disparities in early effects for us adults |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352694/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32498323 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu12061648 |
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