Disability Is an Important Risk Factor for Food
Insecurity
Mark
Nord
Food security—consistent access to
adequate food for active, healthy living—is
an important foundation for good nutrition. ERS
monitors the food security of U.S. households, giving
particular attention to low-income households.
In 2006, 89 percent of the Nation’s
households were food secure through-out the year.
The remaining 11 percent (about 12.6 million households)
were food insecure, meaning that they had difficulty
at times during the year meeting basic food needs
due to lack of money or resources for food. About
one in three food-insecure households, or 4 percent
of all U.S. households, had very low food security
at some time in 2006. In these households, some
members had reduced food intake at times, and their
normal eating patterns were disrupted.
Research findings suggest that
a work-limiting disability substantially increases
the risk of food insecurity for low-income families.
Thirty-seven percent of all low-income households
with very low food security had at least one working-age
adult who was unable to work because of a disability.
In addition to reducing or preventing employment
of the disabled individual and incurring burdensome
medical costs and other expenses, having a household
member with a work-limiting disability can reduce
the work opportunities and hours of other adult
caretakers.
A recent ERS study examined the
food security, employment and disability status,
demographic makeup, and other characteristics of
low-income households to better understand how USDA
food and nutrition assistance programs serve them.
Data on households’ food security as well
as their economic and demographic characteristics
were provided by the nationally representative Current
Population Survey Food Security Supplement for 2005.
The prevalence of very low food security was calculated
for low-income households (annual income less than
130 percent of the poverty line) in selected demographic
and economic groups.
Households with no member in the
labor force and at least one working-age adult who
was out of the labor force because of a disability
had the highest rate of very low food security (23
percent). They comprised 29 percent of all low-income
households with very low food security. An additional
8 percent also had a member out of the labor force
due to disability but had one or more other adult
members in the labor force.
The food security survey does
not collect information on participation in disability
programs. Therefore, this study could not determine
to what extent very low food security in households
with a disabled member reflects ineligibility for
disability assistance, inability or unwillingness
to access those programs, or limited support from
programs in which they do participate. Strengthening
assistance programs for the disabled may be an important
strategy for improving food security in this economically
vulnerable population.
For
more information . . . |
| Characteristics
of Low-Income Households With Very Low Food
Security: An Analysis of the USDA GPRA Food
Security Indicator,
by Mark Nord, EIB-25, USDA, Economic Research
Service, May 2007.
Household
Food Security in the United States, 2006,
by Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, and Steven
Carlson, ERR-49, USDA, Economic Research Service,
November 2007. |
|
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