Developing a community-based response to food insecurity in older adults in walnut hills

Background: Older adults in the Walnut Hills (WH) neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH are at high risk of food insecurity based on the neighborhood's low socioeconomic status and designation as a food desert Food insecurity has significant health consequences for older adults With an existing community partner, we created a food insecurity needs assessment to develop community-identified interventions to address food insecurity and a sustained community-academic partnership with WH residents Methods: A mixed-methods food insecurity needs assessment was developed from the USDA Household Food Security Survey Module The survey focused on barriers to accessing healthy food, food preferences, preparation methods, impact of COVID-19 on food access, and interest in joining a community advisory board Demographic data was also collected including race, gender, and years spent in WH Flyers for survey participation were posted throughout WH with a focus on low-income senior housing and community food distribution events with our partner The survey was administered by phone to 38 adults over 55 years old Data collection is ongoing with a goal of 50 surveys total No one was excluded Data from the first 38 surveys was analyzed to identify high-yield interventions Chi-square analysis will be performed to measure associations between demographic data and food insecurity Results: Preliminary data analysis shows that 58% (22/38) of respondents report high food insecurity scores and 50% (19/38) identified healthy food as the biggest need for older adults in WH Of those who responded, most commonly cited barriers to healthy eating included lack of a grocery store (73%;22/30) and sufficient knowledge on how to make healthy meals (46%;7/15) The majority of respondents (68%;26/38) expressed interest in becoming community advisors for the project Data analysis is ongoing and will be presented Conclusions: A majority of surveyed older adults in WH live with food insecurity and identify access to healthy food through a neighborhood grocery store and knowledge in preparing healthy meals as primary needs We are forming a community advisory group to further inform our response and intervention One probable avenue is a cooking curriculum in collaboration with an existing community partner