Food Insecurity, Diet Quality and Barriers to Healthy Eating During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Adults Who Identify As LGBTQI: A Descriptive Study

OBJECTIVES: To describe food insecurity, diet quality, and barriers to healthy eating during the COVID-19 pandemic among adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI) and live in Newark, NJ. METHODS: This pilot study utilized a cross-sectional design with a web-based survey, and participants provided informed consent. Food insecurity was assessed using the United States Department of Agriculture's validated 6-item short-form food security module. Diet quality was assessed using the PrimeScreen questionnaire [score range 0–42, with higher scores indicating better diet quality]. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the results. RESULTS: Of the 50 participants, 60% were <30 years old; 81.6% were assigned male sex at birth, 56% identified as male, 36% were Hispanic, and 73.3% were Black or African American. A third (32%) were unemployed, and 56% reported a loss of finances due to the pandemic. Forty percent of the sample were food insecure, and 64% had low diet quality scores of between 11 and 20. More than half (68%) reported a worsening of their diet due to the pandemic, and 58% reported the cost of healthy food as a barrier. CONCLUSIONS: High food insecurity and poor diet quality were observed in this study. Participants also identified the high cost of healthy food as a barrier to healthy eating. FUNDING SOURCES: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institute of Health (NIH) under award number UL1TR003017. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.