Caregiver Hospital-Based Food Insecurity in a Canadian Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient and Family Support
• Nutrition Security

Background:

• Hospital-based food insecurity (HBFI) affects caregivers during child admissions.
• Caregiver food insecurity can increase hospital-related expenses.
• Addressing HBFI is crucial for holistic family-centered care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reduce hospital food costs by implementing caregiver meal assistance.
• To evaluate the impact of meal cards and snack bags on caregiver food insecurity.
• To assess caregiver satisfaction with the provided meal assistance.

Main Methods:

• Quality improvement study on a pediatric inpatient unit.
• Interventions included meal cards for at-risk caregivers and snack bags for all.
• Outcome measured: caregiver-reported reduction in hospital food costs.
• Process measures: intervention uptake, screening rates, and satisfaction.

Main Results:

• Caregiver-reported reduction in hospital food costs increased from 0% to 92.9%.
• Snack bags reached 93.1% of caregivers reporting HBFI.
• Caregiver satisfaction was high: 80% for meal cards, 100% for snack bags.

Conclusions:

• Caregiver meal assistance effectively reduced hospital food costs.
• Universal snack bag provision was particularly impactful for addressing HBFI.
• A universal strategy is recommended for comprehensive caregiver food security programs.