Exploring food insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic

Food insecurity is a social determinant of health that contributes to the burden of chronic diseases and poor mental health and disproportionately affects groups with socioeconomic disadvantage.

In a nationally representative study published in Preventing Chronic Disease, researchers identified longitudinal patterns in the development, resolution or persistence of food insecurity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jin Kim-Mozeleski, assistant professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, was lead author on the research.

The researchers found food insecurity was highly variable across the U.S. population, with one-third experiencing some form of food insecurity risk. These findings have implications for identifying population groups who are at increased risk of food insecurity and related health disparities beyond the first year of the pandemic.