Negative Impacts of Food Insecurity on Children’s Health

Food insecurity — uncertainty about or a lack of consistent access to food that meets the needs of household members — is a persistent social problem in the United States that affected roughly 14.3 million households in 2018 and nearly 14% of households with children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A new paper by researchers at the Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) and American University’s School of Public Affairs (AU SPA) confirms the negative impact of food insecurity on child health, suggesting the urgent need for policies to combat this problem. “Previous studies have pointed to a negative impact of food insecurity on child health, but our paper uses rich, nationally representative data to rule out other explanations for this relationship,” says study lead author Margaret M.C. Thomas, MSW, doctoral candidate at BUSSW. “By comparing the outcomes of children in food-secure homes to those in food-insecure homes who were alike with respect to a large number of other factors, we have been able to more definitively characterize the serious negative health impacts of food insecurity.” Read More