United States youth opinions about food insecurity screening and fresh produce prescriptions

Purpose Youth are frequently impacted by food insecurity, yet few studies have examined youth attitudes toward food insecurity screening/interventions. Our study describes youth perspectives on food insecurity screening and produce prescriptions. Methods We conducted a qualitative study using the MyVoice text-messaging cohort, a national sample of youth ages 14–24 years. Participants were sent five open-ended questions on healthy eating, food insecurity, and produce prescriptions. Qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis. Results A total of 573 of 780 eligible youth (73%) responded, with a mean (standard deviation) age of 20.2 (2.7) years. Nearly half (40.8%) had experienced difficulty affording healthy foods and most (81.0%) believed that doctors should know about trouble accessing healthy foods. Most youth (71.6%) were interested in receiving a produce prescription. Discussion Our findings indicate most youth are agreeable to food insecurity screening and produce prescriptions. Future work should identify effective youth-focused food insecurity screening tools/interventions.