File photo
A box of food from the Houston Food Bank.
Houston’s food-insecure households are more likely to report poor health outcomes and go uninsured.
That’s according to a recent survey of more than 5,200 residents last year conducted by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Food insecurity was defined in the study as having a lack of consistent access to nutritious food, along with experiencing hunger, reducing or skipping meals and having difficulty affording healthy meals.
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About 29% of survey respondents in food-insecure households scored their physical health as “poor” or “fair,” compared to 12% of residents in food-secure households.
Nearly 2 out of every 3 food-insecure residents reported a health condition, researchers found. Women were more likely to report cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic conditions than men.
“The households that are reporting food insecurity are also reporting people living with the more chronic health conditions,” said Luz Garcini, the institute’s director of community and public health. “Primarily we think about cardiovascular disease (and) diabetes.”
Uninsured survey respondents were more likely to experience food insecurity and report an annual salary of less than $35,000, according to the study.
Hispanic residents made up 73% of uninsured, food-insecure residents. Food-insecure community members often experienced delays in medical care, and Hispanics were overrepresented in that group as well, researchers found.
Garcini said the next step is to look at how the city’s resources can be used to address food insecurity.
“I think it’s our responsibility to do more than identify the problem,” she said. “The problem isn’t new. Is it getting worse? Absolutely.”