Use of hospital-based food pantries among low-income urban cancer patients

To examine uptake of a novel emergency food system at five cancer clinics in New York City, hospital-based food pantries, and predictors of use, among low-income urban cancer patients. This is a nested cohort study of 351 patients who first visited the food pantries between October 3, 2011 and January 1, 2013. The main outcome was continued uptake of this food pantry intervention. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) statistical analysis was conducted to model predictors of pantry visit frequency. The median number of return visits in the 4 month period after a patient's initial visit was 2 and the mean was 3.25 (SD 3.07). The GEE model showed that younger patients used the pantry less, immigrant patients used the pantry more (than US-born), and prostate cancer and Stage IV cancer patients used the pantry more. Future long-term larger scale studies are needed to further assess the utilization, as well as the impact of food assistance programs such as the this one, on nutritional outcomes, cancer outcomes, comorbidities, and quality of life. Cancer patients most at risk should be taken into particular consideration.