Parents often shield children from experiencing food insecurity, particularly very low food security, even when the parents themselves are food insecure. In about half of those food-insecure households with children, only the adults experienced food insecurity. But in 7. Food insecurity rates differ across States due to both the characteristics of their populations and to State-level policies and economic conditions.
The estimated prevalence of food insecurity during —20 ranged from 5. Combined spending on child nutrition programs decreased by 9 percent. In fiscal , children accounted for 44 percent of all SNAP participants, unchanged from fiscal Children younger than five made up 13 percent of participants in fiscal , while school-age children made up 31 percent. Adults age represented 42 percent of SNAP participants in fiscal , compared with 43 percent in fiscal Adults age 60 and older's share of the SNAP caseload grew from 13 percent in fiscal to 14 percent in fiscal We used data from the Food and You survey, which covers adults in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to analyse what characteristics are associated with any level of food insecurity and increasingly severe food insecurity.
We matched adults in the lowest income quartile from the Food and You survey to adults who took part in the — Low Income Diet and Nutrition survey.
This allowed us to create two comparable groups of low-income adults and enabled us to uncover whether food insecurity is indeed higher today than it was in among a group of otherwise similar low-income adults. We also asked: have adults with particular characteristics, namely those with children, those with disabilities, or those who are unemployed, become more likely to experience food insecurity than adults without these characteristics?
Figure 1: The probability of severe food insecurity. In the survey, in multivariate models, the following characteristics were associated with higher risk of any food insecurity:. There was not a significant difference between men and women or by marital status once other characteristics were accounted for. Adults who were 65 years of age or older had a lower risk of food insecurity compared to those aged 45 to Only three characteristics were significantly associated with increased risk of severe food insecurity see Figure 1.
These were:. When we compared an average low-income adult from the sample to an average low-income adult in the sample, there was a much higher probability of being food insecure in Figure 2. Among adults with life-limiting health conditions or disabilities, the rise in risk was significantly more pronounced compared to adults without these conditions Figure 3.
The rise in risk of food insecurity was not significantly different for adults who had children compared to those without, or for adults who were unemployed compared to those who were working. All of these groups experienced rises. However, risk did not change at all for adults who were retired. The findings suggest that food insecurity affects the most economically-deprived adults in the UK. Though food insecurity is closely related to poverty, not all people living below the poverty line experience food insecurity and people living above the poverty line can experience food insecurity.
Food insecurity does not exist in isolation, as low-income families are affected by multiple, overlapping issues like lack of affordable housing, social isolation, chronic or acute health problems, high medical costs, and low wages.
There is no single face of food insecurity, as it impacts every community in the United States. For information about food insecurity among certain populations, visit the pages below:.
Households with high food security and marginal food security make up the food secure category, and households with low food security and very low food security make up the food insecure category.
Coleman-Jensen, A. Household Food Security in the United States in
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