Are You Getting Enough to Eat? Addressing Food Insecurity in Rehabilitation Clients

Abstract

Food insecurity is a well-known risk factor for poor health and quality-of-life outcomes. Recent explorations of census data have concluded that it is experienced disproportionately by individuals with disabilities, making it an important area of focus for rehabilitation counseling and research. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between food insecurity and work barriers and intrapersonal characteristics that are often the focus of rehabilitation counseling. Findings from a national sample of adults with disabilities (N = 435) reveal that individuals with less than a bachelor’s degree or in a household earning less than $40,000 per year were more likely to report high food insecurity. In addition, food insecurity correlated with unfavorable outcomes in measures of self-reported health, depression, social support, acceptance of chronic illness and disability (CID), and vocational self-efficacy. Implications are presented for increasing attention to the issue of food insecurity within the context of rehabilitation counseling practice and research, including strategies for augmenting services to include food assistance in a way that is sensitive to the experience of individuals with significant resource gaps.

Keywords

food insecurity disability employment barriers

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Babic

DelVecchio Dys

Hake

O’Leary

Waxman

Yarrow

(2014). Hunger in working America. Retrieved from https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/research/hunger-in-working-america/from-paycheck-to-pantry.pdf

Bartkowski

J. P.

Regis

H. A.

(2003). Religious organizations, anti-poverty relief, and charitable choice: A feasibility study of faith-based welfare reform in Mississippi. In Abramson

M. A.

Kieffaber

A. M.

(Eds.), New ways of doing business (pp. 163–216). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Berry

A. A.

Katras

M. J.

Sano

Lee

Bauer

J. W.

(2008). Job volatility of rural, low-income mothers: A mixed methods approach. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 29, 5–22.

Brucker

D. L.

(2016). Food security among young adults with disabilities in the United States: Findings from the National Health Interview Survey. Disability and Health Journal, 9, 298–305.

Brucker

D. L.

(2017). The association of food insecurity with health outcomes for adults with disabilities. Disability and Health Journal, 10, 286–293. doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2016.12.006

Brucker

D. L.

Coleman-Jensen

(2017). Food insecurity across the lifespan for persons with disabilities. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 28, 109–118. doi:10.1177/1044207317710701

Coleman-Jensen

Nord

(2013, May 6). Disability is an important risk factor for food insecurity. Amber Waves. Retrieved from http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/212814/files/http—www_ers_usda_gov-amber-waves-2013-may-disability-is-an-important-risk-factor-for-food-insecurity_aspx__VlR80mqT5IF_pdfmyurl.pdf

Coleman-Jensen

Rabbit

M. P.

Gregory

C. A.

Singh

(2018). Household food security in the United States in 2017. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/90023/err-256.pdf?v=0

Danziger

S. K.

Corcoran

Danziger

Heflin

Kalil

Levine

Toleman

(1999). Barriers to the employment of welfare recipients (Discussion Paper No. 1193-99). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Institute for Research on Poverty.

10.

Danziger

S. K.

Seefeldt

K. S.

(2003). Barriers to employment and the “hard to serve”: Implications for services, sanctions, and time limits. Social Policy and Society, 2, 151–160. doi:10.1017/S1474746403001210

11.

Erickson

Lee

von Schrader

(2019). 2017 disability status report: United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability (YTI).

12.

Feeding America. (2018a). Backpack program. Retrieved from https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hunger-relief-programs/backpack-program

13.

Feeding America. (2018b). Food insecurity and poverty in the United States: Findings from the USDA and U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Food-Insecurity-Poverty-Brief_2018.pdf

14.

Hays

R. D.

(1994). The Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) measures of patient adherence. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/health-care/surveys_tools/mos/patient-adherence.html

15.

Huang

Guo

Kim

(2010). Food insecurity and disability: Do economic resources matter? Social Science Research, 39, 111–124.

16.

Hughes

Avoke

S. K.

(2010). The elephant in the room: Poverty, disability, and employment. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 35(1–2), 5–14. doi:10.2511/rpsd.35.1-2.5

17.

Jih

Stijacic-Cenzer

Seligman

H. K.

Boscardin

W. J.

Nguyen

T. T.

Ritchie

C. S.

(2018). Chronic disease burden predicts food insecurity among older adults. Public Health Nutrition, 21, 1737–1742. doi:10.1017/S1368980017004062

18.

Kroenke

Spitzer

R. L.

Williams

J. B.

, (2001). The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606–613.

19.

Leonard

Hughes

A. E.

Donegan

Santillan

Pruitt

S. L.

(2018). Overlapping geographic clusters of food security and health: Where do social determinants and health outcomes converge in the US? SSM—Population Health, 5, 160–170. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.06.006

20.

Litman

Robinson

Abberbock

(2017). TurkPrime.com: A versatile crowdsourcing data acquisition platform for the behavioral sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 49, 433–442. doi:10.3758/s13428-016-0727-z

21.

Lui

W. M.

Estrada-Hernández

(2010). Counseling and advocacy for individuals living in poverty. In Ratts

M. J.

Toporek

R. L.

Lewis

J. A.

(Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 30–43). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

22.

Lustig

D. C.

Strauser

D. R.

, (2007). Causal relationships between poverty and disability. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 50(4), 194–202.

23.

Mani

Mullainathan

Shafir

Zhao

(2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341, 976–980. doi:10.1126/science.1238041

24.

Martinez

S. M.

Frongillo

E. A.

Leung

Ritchie

(2018). No food for thought: Food insecurity is related to poor mental health and lower academic performance among students in California’s public university system. Journal of Health Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1359105318783028

25.

Noor

N. M.

, (2004). Work-family conflict, work-and family-role salience, and women’s well-being. The Journal of social psychology, 144(4), 389-406.

26.

Phillips

B. N.

Robison

L. J.

Kosciulek

J. F.

(2014). The influence of social capital on starting wage for people with and without disabilities. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 58, 37–45.

27.

Radimer

K. L.

(2002). Measurement of household food security in the USA and other industrialized countries. Public Health Nutrition, 5, 859–864. doi:10.1079/PHN2002385

28.

Samuel

Alkire

Zavaleta

Mills

Hammock

(2018). Social isolation and its relationship to multidimensional poverty. Oxford Development Studies, 46, 83–97.

29.

Seligman

H. K.

Laraia

B. A.

Kushel

M. B.

(2010). Food insecurity is associated with chronic disease among low-income NHANES participants. The Journal of Nutrition and Disease, 140, 304–310. doi:10.3945/jn.109.112573

30.

Sheehan

K. B.

(2018). Crowdsourcing research: Data collection with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Communication Mono-graphs, 85, 140–156. doi:10.1080/03637751.2017.1342043

31.

Son

Kyk

P. H.

Bauer

J. W.

Katras

M. J.

(2011). Barriers to employment among low-income mothers in rural United States communities. International Journal of Human Ecology, 12, 37–49.

32.

Stapleton

D. C.

O’Day

B. L.

Livermore

G. A.

Imparato

A. J.

(2006). Dismantling the poverty trap: Disability policy for the twenty-first century. The Milbank Quarterly, 84, 701–732. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00465.x

33.

Stuifbergen

Becker

Blozis

Beal

(2008). Conceptualization and development of the acceptance of chronic health conditions scale. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 29, 101–114. doi:10.1080/01612840701792548

34.

Sung

Y. Y.

, (2013). Evaluating the world health organization international classification of functioning, disability and health framework as an employment model for people with epilepsy (Order No. AAI3523803). Available from PsycINFO. (1429634992; 2013-99140-379). Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1429634992?accountid=13158

35.

Svare

G. M.

Wendel

(2018). Poverty: Implications and strategic options for applied psychologists, clinicians, and service providers. In Frisby

C. L.

O’Donohue

W. T.

(Eds.), Cultural competence in applied psychology (pp. 363–382). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

36.

Sylvestre

Notten

Kerman

Polillo

Czechowki

(2018). Poverty and serious mental illness: Toward action on a seemingly intractable problem. American Journal of Community Psychology, 61, 153–165. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12211

37.

Tansey

T. N.

Dutta

Kundu

Chan

(2016). From admiration of the problem to action: Addressing the limited success in vocational rehabilitation of persons from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 45, 117–119.

38.

, (2016). Testing an expanded self-determination theory as a model of career commitment for young adults with epilepsy (Order No. 10141352). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ CIC Institutions; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (1822245543). Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1822245543?accountid=13158

39.

United States Census. (2018). Measuring the nation’s social and economic well-being. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2018/comm/well-being.html

40.

United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2017). Food security survey tools. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/survey-tools/#six

41.

United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2018a). Definitions of food security. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-security.aspx

42.

United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2018b). Overview. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/

43.

United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services. (2018). Child nutrition programs. Retrieved from https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/child-nutrition-programs

44.

United States Department of Labor. (2018). Consolidated minimum wage table. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/mw-consolidated.htm

45.

U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2018). Federal poverty level. Retrieved from https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/

46.

Von Rueden

Gosch

Rajmil

Bisegger

Ravens-Sieberer

. (2006). Socioeconomic determinants of health related quality of life in childhood and adolescence: Results from a European study. Journal of Epidemiology and Comm-unity Health, 60, 130–135. doi:10.1136/jech.2005.039792