Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Insecurity in an Urban Emergency Department Patient Population

Introduction:Food insecurity (FI) has been associated with adverse health outcomes and increased healthcare expenditures. Many families experienced reduced access to food during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A 2019 study revealed that the pre-pandemic prevalence of FI at an urban, tertiary care hospital ’s emergency department (ED) was 35.3%. We sought to evaluate whether the prevalence of FI in the same ED patient population increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We performed a single-center, observational, survey-based study. Surveys assessing for FI were administered to clinically stable patients presenting to the ED over 25 consecutive weekdays from November –December 2020.Results: Of 777 eligible patients, 379 (48.8%) were enrolled; 158 (41.7%) screened positive for FI. During the pandemic, there was...
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research