Rates of and characteristics associated with food insecurity differ among undergraduate and graduate students at a large public university in the Southeast United States
- Resource Type
- article
- Authors
- Jessica Soldavini; Maureen Berner; Julia Da Silva
- Source
- Preventive Medicine Reports, Vol 14, Iss , Pp - (2019)
- Subject
- Medicine
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2211-3355
The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and identify characteristics associated with food security status separately for undergraduate and graduate students. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 4819 students from a public flagship university in the Southeastern US. Students completed an online questionnaire assessing food security status over the past 12 months using the 10-item US Adult Food Security Survey Module and self-reported demographics and student characteristics. Data were collected in October and November of 2016. Analyses were stratified by student status (undergraduate or graduate). We calculated frequencies of food security status categories and used multinomial logistic regression to assess the association between food security status and student characteristics. Food insecurity rates were 25.2% for undergraduate and 17.8% for graduate students. Characteristics associated with food security status (p