Food Insecurity in Households of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: To explore differences in food insecurity for individuals and families of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the COVID-19 pandemic by individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics. Methods: We surveyed a convenience sample of households of people with ASD. We calculated food insecurity using items from the US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey. Results: Over half of all respondents reported being food insecure (51.8%). Respondents who reported being food insecure were more likely to be minority, have a high school education or less, be on public insurance or uninsured, live in urban/rural communities, and say that their community is not supportive. The majority of respondents did not get free food or groceries (53.2%). Food insecure respondents who got free food was most likely to get them from schools (34.2%). Conclusion: This is the first study of its kind to explore food security in households of people with ASD. The pandemic has exacerbated existing neighborhood disparities. The federal response to food insecurity caused by the pandemic needs to be further explored especially for preferred and medically necessary foods for people with ASD.

COVID-19 and behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder: Disparities by income and food security status

“…Food insecurity can also be detrimental to the cognitive development of children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders including ASD ( Althoff et al, 2016 ). The percentage of food insecurity status in our study (55–60 %) is comparable to a recent larger study by Autism Speaks that examined food security status among ASD families in November and December, 2020 (52 %) ( Vasudevan et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, while this recent study reported differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics by food security status among these families, associations with behavior changes were not examined.…”

Predictors of Satisfaction with Autism Treatment Services During COVID-19

“…A complex array of caregiver demands during COVID-19 (e.g., number of children at home, financial stress, illness) and other unmeasured variables likely contributed to variance in service satisfaction ratings during COVID-19 (e.g. Baweja et al, 2021;Vasudevan et al, 2021). Second, an inherent limitation of an online survey study is that recruitment is limited to individuals who have access to a cell phone or computer and a stable internet connection, which may limit representation of caregivers from lower SES families.…”