Persistent Food Insecurity Among Older Adult Cancer Survivors: A National Cohort Study.

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the trajectories of food insecurity and examine their associations with sociodemographic and health-related factors in older adult cancer survivors.

Sample & setting: Data from 2015 to 2021 from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a nationally representative cohort study of community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years or older, were extracted and analyzed.

Methods & variables: Food insecurity was annually measured based on five self-reported items. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify food insecurity trajectory groups. Data analysis accounted for the complex survey design and analytic weights.

Results: The sample consisted of 1,935 older adult cancer survivors. The weighted prevalence of food insecurity ranged from 2.46% to 4.73% from 2015 to 2021. The following two food insecurity trajectory groups were identified: low-stable (n = 1,796, 93%) and medium-stable (n = 139, 7%). Individuals who were younger, female, not non-Hispanic and White, and physically frail, and those with lower household income and higher levels of anxiety and depression, were more likely to experience persistent food insecurity.

Implications for nursing: Food security in older adult survivors is persistent and distributed inequitably among those who are female, not non-Hispanic and White, and younger, and those with lower household income.