Food Insecurity and Food Environments of Low‐income Older Adults in Northeast Georgia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe subjective and objective measures of food environments in relation to food insecurity in a random sample of 138 senior center participants in northeast GA (mean age 78 years, 77% women, 41% black). Subjective food environments were measured by an interviewer‐administered survey and food resources were geocoded to census blockgroups. Around 12% of the sample were food insecure, and they were more likely to be black, less educated, and at higher nutritional and functional risk than food secure participants. Food insecure participants were more likely to live in poorer urban areas where more and different kinds of food stores were available in a closer distance than where food secure participants lived. Most of the food insecure participants reported using a supermarket most frequently for grocery shopping, and around 70% of them reported traveling <5 miles and <10 minutes to get to their frequently used supermarket. However, food insecure participants were more likely to report lower perceived availability and affordability of food stores in their community than their counterparts. These data suggest that food insecure older adults may perceive limited access to food stores irrespective of actual availability of food stores in their community, and warrant further studies to understand the challenges low‐income older adults face in the community to meet their basic food needs.