Primary Care Providers’ Perspectives on Screening Older Adult Patients for Food Insecurity

ABSTRACT

Food insecurity has been associated with poor health and health outcomes among older adults, yet food assistance resources are available and underutilized. Routine screening and referral for food insecurity in primary care is one avenue to connect food-insecure older adults with available resources. This qualitative study aims to better understand the beliefs of primary care providers (PCPs) about food security screening and referrals in a primary care setting and perceived barriers to implementation. PCPs (n = 16) who have older adult patients but do not routinely screen for food insecurity were interviewed by phone. PCPs recognize the importance of food security for older patients and discuss nutrition and food access with patients under certain circumstances. Concerns emerged with regard to implementing a systematic screening and referral process: limited time to meet with patients, a lack of resources for addressing food insecurity, and prioritizing food insecurity at both the health system and the patient levels. Despite perceived challenges, PCPs are receptive to the idea of systematically screening and referring patients to external resources for food assistance and support. Barriers could be addressed by health systems prioritizing food insecurity as a health concern and public and private payers providing reimbursement for screening.

KEYWORDS:

• Food security
• preventive screening
• primary health care

Acknowledgments

We thank the health care professionals who took time out of their busy work days, and sometimes days off, to discuss this important issue with us. The views expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of IMPAQ International. None of the authors has any financial or other conflict of interests to disclose.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge that this research was made possible through funding from AARP Foundation.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge that this research was made possible through funding from AARP Foundation.