Who's Hungry in San Diego

Author

Alison M. Schurman, University of San DiegoFollow
Kathy S. James, University of San Diego

Date of Award

Spring 5-27-2017

Document Type

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscript

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Kathy James, DNSc, APRN, FAAN

Abstract

Objective: Food insecurity (FI) is a lack of access to nutritious food. FI has been linked to multiple preventable diseases from behavioral disorders to asthma to obesity and its sequelae. In San Diego County, 14 percent of families are food insecure. The AAP recommends screening for FI at all well appointments using the two-question FI screening tool. The aim of this project was to implement this tool at a multi-clinic, low income population community health center where ninety-five percent of patients meet qualification for SNAP benefits.

Methods: Stakeholders chose one week to screen all patients presenting to clinic for FI using the two-question FI survey at every well appointment.

Results: 686 patients were screened for FI. Forty-eight percent of 686 respondents screened positive. A screening is considered “positive for FI” when one of the two screening questions is answered “Often” or “Sometimes”.

Conclusions: Screening for FI affords a provider the opportunity to identify at-risk populations and provide them the resources for local programs. FI within this community clinic group is nearly triple that of San Diego county. Screening for FI is imperative. The next step in this process is both implement the survey permanently into the medical record intake questionnaire and to make a list of local resources and provide those resources to patients who screen positive.

Digital USD Citation

Schurman, Alison M. and James, Kathy S., "Who's Hungry in San Diego" (2017). Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts. 42.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/dnp/42

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA License.