Berkowitz SA, et al. - An exploration was carried out of the food insecurity (limited food access owing to cost) and living in areas with low physical access to nutritious foods with regard to the management of diabetes. A link was demonstrated between food insecurity with higher HbA1c. However, this was not true with regard to living in an area with low physical food access. Data disclosed that food insecurity screening and interventions could aid in improving the glycemic control for vulnerable patients.

Methods

• The scheme of this research was a prospective cohort study.
• Experts evaluated patients with diabetes in a primary care network completed food insecurity assessment in 2013.
• Herein, low physical food access at the census tract level was defined as no supermarket within 1 mile in urban areas and 10 miles in rural areas.
• The estimations of HbA1c were extracted from electronic health records through November 2016.
• A scrutiny was performed of the correlation among food insecurity, low physical food access, and glycemic control (as defined by HbA1c) via hierarchical linear mixed models.

Results

• Researchers performed a follow-up of 391 candidates for a mean of 37 months.
• Food insecurity was found in 20% of the respondents and 31% resided in an area of low physical food access.
• A connection was determined between food insecurity with higher HbA1c (difference of 0.6% [6.6 mmol/mol], 95% CI 0.4-0.8 [4.4-8.7], P < 0.0001), which did not improve over time (P=0.50) in adjusted models.
• No link was disclosed between living in an area with low physical food access with a difference in HbA1c (difference 0.2% [2.2 mmol/mol], 95% CI -0.2 to 0.5 [-2.2 to 5.6], P=0.33) or with change over time (P=0.07).