This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Nearly half of families report food insecurity during child’s hospitalization

Alice Lee

ORLANDO — Nearly half of families who brought a child to the hospital reported experiencing food insecurity, according to a presentation at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition.

“There is a lot of research being done about food insecurity in the household and community settings, and an untapped area is within the inpatient pediatric population,” Alice Lee, MD, a pediatric hospital medicine fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital, told Infectious Diseases in Children.

“My study looks primarily at that population. We found that there [are] about 38% of families who identify as food insecure in the household or outpatient setting, which is greater than the national average of 15% of households with children in the community. However, there is a whopping 44% who identify as food insecure in the hospital setting, and there is not great screening or resources.”

Lee and colleagues examined survey data from an ongoing prospective cohort study of the primary caregivers of children aged 0 to 18 years who were hospitalized for at least 48 hours in a nonintensive care unit of a hospital with more than 18,000 patient admissions every year. The parents and other caregivers completed a 79-item survey, which included the 18-item U.S. Household Food Security Survey and questions to identify inpatient food insecurity.

The researchers enrolled 240 patients over 8 months. The median age of the children was 41.5 months. Regarding race and ethnicity, more than half of caregivers (53%) were classified white, followed by Hispanic/Latino/Spanish (39%) and black (27%). Most families spoke English, and 12 families spoke Spanish. The prevalence of food insecurity was 38% for households and 44% for inpatients.

Lee and colleagues reported a significant association between household and inpatient food insecurity (P < .01). Thirty-one percent of patients reported household and inpatient food insecurity, whereas 13% reported food insecurity during hospitalization but not at home. The researchers also reported that public insurance, fair or poor self-rated caregiver health, household income of less than $30,000 per year, unmarried caregiver status, living more than 30 miles from the hospital, transportation needs and Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program use in the past or present were associated with increased food insecurity. The main sources of food for families were the hospital cafeteria (65%) and food that was dropped off by friends or family (45%).

Only 5% of caregivers reported that they were screened for food insecurity by a physician.

“My hope is that with this study, the advice would be that there should be implementation of a dedicated inpatient food insecurity screening tool, which unfortunately has not been developed yet,” Lee said. “There is a validated two-item tool through Children’s HealthWatch, and I would recommend hospitals implement that, and then have something to offer the parents.”

Lee noted that as a secondary part of her survey, she is conducting interviews with parents who identify as food insecure. She said that parents “want to have resources available to help them in the hospital.” – by Bruce Thiel

Reference:

Lee A, et al. Inpatient food insecurity in the caregivers of hospitalized pediatric patients. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Nov. 2-6, 2018; Orlando, Fla.

Disclosure: Lee reports no relevant financial disclosures.