COVID-19 Cases are Associated with Food Insufficiency in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This research examined the association between COVID-19 cases and food insufficiency in the United States using repeated cross-sectional data from the Household Pulse Survey (April 23, 2020-May 24, 2021, n = 2,618,027). New daily cases averaged 65,160.93 throughout the study period. A 70,000-unit increase in COVID-19 cases was associated with a 13% higher odds of food insufficiency (OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.12–1.15). Participants with mild (OR = 2.72, 95% CI: 2.61–2.84), moderate (OR = 4.58, 95% CI: 4.36–4.81), or severe (OR = 8.75, 95% CI: 8.42–9.09) anxiety/depression and Black participants (OR = 2.36, 95% CI: 2.29–2.44) had the highest odds of reporting food insufficiency during the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insufficiency
• COVID-19
• health disparities
• mental health
• social policies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2023.2202618.