Identifying Food Insecurity in Health Care Settings: A Review of the Evidence

Food insecurity is an important factor affecting more than 41 million people in the United States and impacts the health of a large segment of this population. Growing research supports that a lack of access to essential nutrition and health care is associated with poor health across the life-span. Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) at the University of California, San Francisco has provided a new issue brief reviewing food insecurity screenings in health care settings. This resource summarizes evidence on the effectiveness and validity of multiple screening tools, and provides insights into both provider and patient acceptability to promote future improvement  of screening tools.