Abstract
Objective
To determine the prevalence of food insecurity and the factors associated with it
among health sciences graduate students.
Methods
A cross-sectional web-based survey conducted in 2019 on an urban health sciences campus
of a large, public northeastern university among health sciences graduate students.
Food security status was assessed using the US Department of Agriculture validated
6-item short-form food security module.
Results
Of the 302 respondents (response rate, 8.8%), the mean age ± SD was 28.8 ± 7.30 years;
28.5% were food insecure. After adjusting for other covariates, receiving loans was
independently associated with higher odds of being food insecure (P < 0.001).
Conclusions and Implications
Universities may consider screening graduate students for food insecurity risk, especially
those receiving student loans. Future research on this topic with graduate students
and program administrators in other universities may help identify potential interventions.
The impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on food insecurity among graduate
students merit exploration to develop context-specific interventions.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 19, 2020
Accepted:
November 9,
2020
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior.
