Social risk screening and interventions in healthcare settings: Opportunities, challenges, and future research

Food insecurity, the insufficient or uncertain access to enough food, affected 14.8% of US households with children in 2020 and is associated with adverse physical, mental, and behavioral health across the lifecourse. National healthcare organizations have recommended that clinicians screen patients for food insecurity and other social risk factors. In our study, “Written Versus Verbal Food Insecurity Screening in One Primary Care Clinic,” we evaluated a natural experiment that occurred at one clinic that converted from clinicians verbally asking a 2-item food insecurity questionnaire to parents/caregivers responding on a written form. We found that changing from a verbal to written screen resulted in an immediate and significant increase in the proportion of families who reported food insecurity (10.4% vs 16.3%). In this progress report, we consider our results in light of the published literature since we submitted our manuscript in May 2019 and discuss the increased focus on social inequities, growing investment in integrating social care, areas for future research, and potential challenges with social risk screening.