• Sungchul Park and Seth A Berkowitz.
• Department of Health Policy and Management, College of Health Science, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; L-HOPE Program for Community-Based Total Learning Health Systems, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: sungchul_park@korea.ac.kr.
• Am J Prev Med. 2024 Jul 1; 67 (1): 120123120-123.

IntroductionFood insecurity is associated with adverse health outcomes, but may also have a detrimental effect on social relationships, potentially exacerbating social isolation and loneliness, and consequently affecting health-related quality of life. This study examined the associations of food insecurity with social isolation, loneliness, and health-related quality of life among U.S. adults.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted using panel data from the 2020-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Regression models were used to assess the associations of food insecurity in 1 year with the outcomes of interest in the subsequent year while adjusting for baseline individual-level characteristics. Analysis was conducted in December 2023.ResultsExperiencing food insecurity in 2020 was significantly associated with increased reports of social isolation (3.1 percentage points [95% CI: 1.2-5.1]) and loneliness (9.7 percentage points [95% CI: 1.0-18.3]) in 2021. Additionally, food insecurity in 2020 was significantly associated with lower self-reported good mental health (-2.9 percentage points [95% CI: -5.1, -0.6]) and mental component summary score from the Short Form-12 Health Survey (-3.3 points [95% CI -3.8, -2.9]) in 2021. However, there were no or small associations with physical health-related quality of life.ConclusionsFood insecurity is associated with worse social and mental well-being among U.S. adults. This suggests that food insecurity interventions should not focus too narrowly on nutrition, but instead give holistic consideration to the multiple ways food insecurity harms health-not only via lower quality diets, but through worse mental health and impairing the ability to participate in social life.Copyright © 2024 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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