Comparing characteristics of food insecure and food secure patients in an underserved heart failure clinic
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University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States
Publication date: 2023-04-27
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A835
ABSTRACT
The HRTSA (HeaRt-Failure Transitional Services for Adults) clinic at the university of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital serves uninsured and underinsured individuals with heart failure (HF). In this study, we examined the differences in sociodemographic factors, clinical characteristics, depression and anxiety scores, health literacy scores, and health status perception scores among food secure and food insecure patients who established care in clinic. Between January 2018 and April 2021, 575 patients established care in the HRTSA clinic post-hospitalization. Patients were adults ≥ 18 years of age with heart failure. At the first clinic visit, baseline sociodemographic and medical history were obtained. Through descriptive statistics, t-tests, and chi-square tests conducted using SAS we compared demographic and clinical characteristics of food insecure and food secure clinic patients. Among all of the sociodemographic factors, clinical characteristics, depression and anxiety scores, health literacy scores, and health status perception scores that were assessed, none were found to be statistically significant. Although none of our Results were statistically significant, food insecurity is still an important social determinant of health that has previously been found to be associated with higher depression and anxiety. The difference in Results from previous studies can be due to change in study population size.