Food and Housing Insecurity, Resource Allocation, and Follow-up in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Public Health
• Social Determinants of Health

Background:

• Food and housing insecurity are prevalent issues affecting children's well-being.
• Emergency departments (ED) are critical touchpoints for identifying and assisting food- and housing-insecure families.
• Current strategies for screening and intervention in ED settings lack standardized consensus.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the implementation of a food/housing insecurity screening tool within a pediatric ED.
• To assess the uptake of resource referrals among families identified as food- and/or housing-insecure.
• To identify barriers to resource utilization in an ED-based intervention model.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study conducted in a freestanding children's hospital's ED.
• Caregivers of 1,908 pediatric patients were screened for food and housing insecurity.
• Data analysis included descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and chi-squared tests to evaluate screening positivity and resource referral uptake.

Main Results:

• 21.8% of surveyed caregivers screened positive for food and/or housing insecurity.
• Only 10.2% of those who screened positive utilized at least one resource referral.
• The primary barrier to referral utilization was loss or non-receipt of the referral information.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric EDs identify significant rates of food and housing insecurity, underscoring the need for effective interventions.
• The study highlights challenges in ED-based screening and intervention efficacy, evidenced by low resource uptake.
• Further research is needed to optimize screening tools and intervention strategies for food- and housing-insecure populations in emergency settings.