Food Insecurity in Households of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Abstract
Objectives
To explore differences in food insecurity for individuals and families of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the COVID-19 pandemic by individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics.
Methods
We surveyed a convenience sample of households of people with ASD. We calculated food insecurity using items from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey..
Results
Over half of all respondents reported being food insecure (51.8%). Respondents who reported being food insecure were more likely to be minority, have a high school education or less, be on public insurance or uninsured, live in urban/rural communities, and say that their community is not supportive. The majority of respondents did not get free food or groceries (53.2%). Food insecure respondents who got free food was most likely to get them from schools (34.2%).
Conclusion
This is the first study of its kind to explore food security in households of people with ASD. The pandemic has exacerbated existing neighborhood disparities. The federal response to food insecurity caused by the pandemic needs to be further explored especially for preferred and medically necessary foods for people with ASD.
Article activity feed
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.30.21254339: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved as exempt by the Institutional Review Board at [insert name of author’s IRB]. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:This study has two primary limitations. Firstly, the study used a convenience sample of families of people with ASD and was not …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.30.21254339: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved as exempt by the Institutional Review Board at [insert name of author’s IRB]. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:This study has two primary limitations. Firstly, the study used a convenience sample of families of people with ASD and was not representative of households of people with ASD. The second limitation was that this study did not use the full 18 USDA food insecurity item set. Despite these limitations, this study establishes a baseline estimate of food insecurity for households of people with ASD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health Implications: Food insecurity has long term ramifications and the COVID-19 pandemic has made its effects much more prevalent especially for households of people with ASD. For people with ASD and their families, food insecurity could have additional impact on their physical and mental health status. Policy makers should consider strategies to improving access to preferred and medically necessary food. Additional efforts should be undertaken to improve community design especially at the intersection of neighborhood, race, and disability status.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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