Screening for food insecurity in primary care

According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, 12.8% of US households faced food insecurity in 2022, increasing from 10.5% in 2020. Texas ranked second highest on the list of states, with 15.5% of households reporting food insecurity. The health consequences of not having adequate access to nutritious, consistent food are well documented, increasing the risks of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

In this issue of Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, a team from Texas Tech sought to understand the level of food insecurity of their patients with type 2 diabetes or hypertension. These were patients of a student-run free clinic, a walk-in clinic for adult patients without insurance. As expected of a lower-income population, the patients had higher food insecurity rates than the population at large. Castro et al found that 13.9% of patients reported low food security and 30.4% reported very low food security.