Millions of people across the U.S. rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to help with buying food. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, SNAP beneficiaries have received additional benefits called Emergency Allotment, or EA.
That changed at the end of February 2023, when the EA program came to an end. Still, many people face food scarcity and food insecurity. As a result, people and families often turn to nutrient-poor foods that cost less and are easier to access. This can lead to another problem: nutritional insecurity.
“We define nutritional insecurity as inconsistent access, availability, and affordability of food that promotes well-being,” says Dr. Yonit Lax, an attending physician in the Divisions of General Pediatrics, Hospital Medicine, and Population Health at Maimonides Children’s Hospital.
Screening for Food Scarcity Doesn’t Always Reveal a Patient’s Full Picture of Nutritional Gaps
Dr. Lax and team recently published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) highlighting gaps in screening for food scarcity. The team uncovered how conventional screening for food scarcity alone may not identify people who face nutritional insecurity. Based on their findings, she and her co-authors recommend adding nutritional insecurity screening questions to food scarcity screening in order to gain a more complete picture of those in need of intervention.
In their findings, Dr. Lax and team wrote, “Intervening at the start of food scarcity when families are first experiencing nutritional insecurity may not only improve diet quality, but also help avoid the development of food insecurity.”
The next step, Dr. Lax and team say, is to validate questions for nutritional insecurity that can be used broadly by other practitioners.
Taking a deeper look into the lives of patients and finding new ways to intervene isn’t new for Dr. Lax or others at Maimonides Children’s Hospital. Since 2019, the team here screens all patients and their families for social determinants of health to determine how they impact health and well-being—and to find ways to help.
Social Determinants of Health are Critical to Children’s Well-Being
Under Dr. Lax’s leadership, Maimonides Children’s Hospital has standardized and incorporated into the medical record a process to ensure every patient is asked about factors such as housing, food, schools, access to safe outdoor space, inequity, and structural racism. This work even led in 2021 to a letter-writing campaign by Dr. Lax and team designed to change landlord behavior and improve poor housing conditions that were affecting the health and well-being of patients.
“As physicians, we have the unique and powerful ability to act as voices for our patients and their families,” Dr. Lax says. “We can advocate on their behalf in simple and creative ways that we may have never thought possible. When we speak up, we can make a big difference.”
To refer a patient to Maimonides Children’s Hospital, call 718.283.7500 or visit maimo.org/children.
