Long COVID and the Higher Risk of Food Insecurity Among Participants and Nonparticipants of Food Assistance Programs in the United States.

BACKGROUND

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 public health emergency, it is important to understand the extent of socioeconomic burdens of long COVID, defined as continuation of symptoms after initial infection, including food insecurity.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to assess the association between long COVID and family food insecurity among low-income individuals (or any of their family members living with them) who were participants and nonparticipants in public food assistance programs (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children [WIC], and National School Lunch Program [NSLP]) in the United States.

DESIGN

The study used an observational cross-sectional design.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Data on 7151 adults (aged 18+ years), with family income of < 200% of the Federal Poverty line, from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, were analyzed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Level of family food security, based on responses to a set of 10 questions measuring family's food security during the past 30 days.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED

Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to obtain relative risk ratios of marginal and low/very low food security, relative to the base outcome of high food security, for long COVID status. Multivariable models were estimated separately for the full sample and for subgroups of food assistance participants and nonparticipants. A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) specification was estimated to assess whether the estimates were different across the participant and nonparticipant subgroups.

RESULTS

Compared with individuals who never had COVID-19, the adjusted relative risks of experiencing marginal and low/very low food security were 1.42 (95% CI, 1.00-2.02) and 1.43 (95% CI, 1.08-1.91) times higher, respectively, for individuals who had long COVID. Although the adjusted risks were not observed to be statistically significant in the participant subgroup, among nonparticipants, adjusted relative risk ratios were 2.34 (95% CI, 1.43-3.82) and 1.56 (95% CI, 1.02-2.39), respectively. SUR results showed that relationships between long COVID and food insecurity were only different for marginal and not low/very low levels of food security between food assistance participant and nonparticipant groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Study findings highlight a significantly higher risk of marginal and low/very low- food security among low-income adults who had long COVID, especially those who were nonparticipants in public food assistance programs. Further research is warranted to explore the causal pathways of this relationship for informing policies to mitigate the burden of long COVID.