Relationship between Unstable Housing, Food Insecurity, and Vision Status in the MI-SIGHT Community Eye Disease...

Housing and food insecurity are social risk factors that can impact eye health outcomes. This study investigated the association of these social risk factors with vision and ophthalmic pathologic characteristics.

Cross-sectional study from July 28, 2020, through July 27, 2021, for the free clinic and January 27, 2021, through January 26, 2022, for the Federally Qualified Health Center.

Michigan Screening and Intervention for Glaucoma and Eye Health through Telemedicine program first-year participants.

Data collected included sociodemographic features, housing and food insecurity status, and results from a comprehensive telemedicine assessment. Individual-level and neighborhood-level characteristics were summarized with descriptive statistics. Differences in participant characteristics between housing and food security status were tested by 2-sample t tests for continuous measures and chi-square or Fisher exact tests for categorical measures. Logistic regression was used to test the independent associations between housing and food insecurity and ophthalmic disease, adjusted for age. The Holm’s procedure was performed to adjust for multiple comparisons.

Visual impairment (VI; presenting visual acuity [VA], < 20/40), uncorrected or undercorrected refractive error (PVA, < 20/40; and best-corrected VA, ≥ 20/40), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, cataract, and macular degeneration.

Participants (n = 1165) were mean ± standard deviation [SD] of 55 ± 14.5 years of age, 62% identified as female, 54% identified as Black or African American, 10% identified as Hispanic or Latino, 49.7% had annual household income of less than $20 000, and 20% reported no medical insurance. Presenting VA was mean ± SD of 0.12 ± 0.19 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution units (Snellen equivalent, 20/26 ± 1.9 lines). Visual impairment and uncorrected or undercorrected refractive error were identified in 10.3% and 8.3% of participants, respectively. Participants reported housing insecurity (3.4%) and food insecurity (28.9%), and 2.2% reported both. Among participants with unstable housing, 26.3% showed VI and 23.7% showed uncorrected or undercorrected refractive error. Unstable housing was associated with higher odds of VI (odds ratio, 3.53; P = 0.006) and uncorrected or undercorrected refractive error (odds ratio, 3.74; P = 0.006). No associations were observed between unstable housing and other ocular pathologic features or food insecurity and any ocular pathologic features.

Because unstable housing is associated with VI and uncorrected refractive error, future initiatives could focus on interventions to address both unstable housing and the increased need for eye care among those with unstable housing.

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.