Food insecurity linked with premature death among Americans with chronic diseases

Two public health researchers at New Mexico State University are collaborating on a series of studies to understand the long-term impacts of food insecurity among American adults living with chronic diseases.

Jagdish Khubchandani and Karen Kopera-Frye, both professors of public health sciences in NMSU’s College of Health, Education and Social Transformation, recently conducted two studies using multiple large population databases from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In their first study, Khubchandani and Kopera-Frye used a sample of more than 30,000 adults, 20 years and older, across the nation to understand the impact of food insecurity among those with colorectal cancer.

Their findings, published in Gastrointestinal Disorders, found that colorectal cancer alone may not significantly increase the risk of premature mortality. However, among those with colorectal cancer and food insecurity combined, the risk for any cause of death increased by 4.13 times, and the risk of heart disease related deaths increased 9.57 times upon prolonged follow-up.

“Colorectal cancers are among the leading causes of death among U.S. adults, claiming more than 50,000 lives every year,” Khubchandani said. “Cancer alone is a debilitating disease, and the co-occurrence of food insecurity makes it worse.”

Kopera-Frye added, “Health care practitioners should be sensitized to the growing problem of food insecurity especially among those with chronic diseases such as cancers. Unfortunately, those suffering from food insecurity are the most highly impacted.”

In their second study, published in a special issue of the journal Nutrire, Khubchandani and Kopera-Frye analyzed more than 10,000 adult Americans, using chronic kidney diseases as an example of a health condition that can lead to premature death in the presence of long-term food insecurity.

They found that while chronic kidney diseases alone increased the risk of death by 1.37 times, the presence of chronic food insecurity further increased the risk of premature death by 2.28 times.

“More than 100 million Americans have at least one major chronic disease. The health care model is clearly not helpful enough in adequately managing the burden of these health conditions, given multiple other problems such as food insecurity that coexist among those with chronic illnesses,” Khubchandani said.

Khubchandani suggested that a comprehensive approach to chronic disease management should include collaborative care that also responds to patients’ social and economic needs.

“Nearly a 10th of adults in the U.S. are food insecure every year, and prescribing medications alone will not help,” he added.