Dr. Heather McClintock, assistant professor of Public Health, and Brittany Imel ’23MPH, MMS published “Food insecurity and medication restricting behavior among persons with diabetes in the United States” in Nutrition and Health, an online, international, peer-reviewed journal.

Their analysis was based upon data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted in the United States. The authors found that people with diabetes who are food insecure are more likely to exhibit medication restricting behaviors. These include skipping medication, taking less medication, delaying filling a prescription, and/or taking less medication due to cost.

Participants were categorized as either being food secure or having low or very low food security, based upon a 10-item scale. Those with low or very low food security had a higher number of medication restricting behaviors on average than those considered food secure.