Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health
Population Health Research Brief Series
How is Food Insecurity Measured in the United States and What Share of Older Adults are Food Insecure?
Colleen M. Heflin and Madonna Harrington Meyer
September 2025
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures food insecurity based on whether households had problems affording food during the last twelve months. Based on the current definition, in 2023 9.2% of households with adults ages 60 and older were food insecure. But there are many problems with the existing definition for accurately capturing food insecurity among older adults.
Based on the book, Food for Thought: Understanding Older Adults Food Insecurity, this brief summarizes those limitations, noting that existing measures do not account for barriers that are common among older adults, such as mobility, physical distance, and transportation barriers.
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