Table 1.
Characteristics of US adults with diagnosed diabetes by food insecurity and diet quality
| Food insecurity and diet quality (HEI-2015)* | P value, χ2 | ||||
| Food secure and high diet quality | Food secure and low diet quality | Food insecure and high diet quality | Food insecure and low diet quality | ||
| Unweighted n | 681 | 551 | 400 | 443 | |
| % (SE) | |||||
| Total | 35.2 (1.5) | 33.1 (1.5) | 14.2 (1.1) | 17.6 (1.3) | |
| Age (years) | |||||
| Mean | 62.5 (0.7) | 60.3 (0.7) | 59.9 (0.94) | 56.3 (0.8) | |
| 20–44 | 6.9 (1.4) | 13.0 (1.3) | 15.6 (2.5) | 19.9 (1.9) | 0.001 |
| 45–64 | 45.1 (2.7) | 48.2 (2.5) | 43.3 (3.6) | 50.5 (3.7) | |
| ≥65 | 48.0 (2.8) | 38.8 (2.6) | 41.1 (4.0) | 29.7 (3.5) | |
| Sex | |||||
| Men | 58.1 (2.8) | 57.5 (3.3) | 36.8 (3.3) | 49.3 (2.6) | <0.001 |
| Women | 41.9 (2.8) | 42.5 (3.3) | 63.2 (3.3) | 50.7 (2.6) | |
| Race and ethnicity | |||||
| Non-Hispanic White | 67.4 (3.0) | 74.1 (2.5) | 45.8 (4.7) | 59.0 (3.8) | <0.001 |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 12.7 (1.9) | 11.0 (1.3) | 19.2 (2.9) | 16.7 (2.4) | |
| Hispanic/Latino | 11.3 (1.8) | 12.5 (2.2) | 29.7 (4.0) | 21.6 (2.7) | |
| Non-Hispanic Asian | 8.6 (1.5) | 2.4 (0.6) | 5.3 (1.6) | 2.7 (0.8) | |
| Poverty income ratio | |||||
| <1.00 | 6.9 (1.3) | 8.0 (1.2) | 26.5 (2.8) | 35.6 (3.6) | <0.001 |
| 1.00–2.00 | 13.8 (1.9) | 16.8 (1.9) | 35.0 (3.2) | 29.5 (3.5) | |
| >2.00 | 72.5 (2.9) | 69.8 (2.3) | 31.0 (3.4) | 29.6 (3.7) | |
| Missing | 6.8 (1.4) | 5.5 (0.7) | 7.5 (1.5) | 5.3 (1.7) | |
| Education | |||||
| Less than high school | 12.4 (1.7) | 16.1 (1.7) | 31.3 (2.9) | 27.3 (3.1) | <0.001 |
| High school graduate | 23.0 (2.2) | 23.6 (2.6) | 32.5 (3.0) | 30.4 (3.2) | |
| Some college | 33.4 (2.9) | 37.2 (3.1) | 26.2 (2.7) | 35.7 (3.2) | |
| College graduate or above | 31.2 (3.3) | 23.1 (2.3) | 10.1 (1.6) | 6.6 (1.9) | |
| SNAP benefit | |||||
| Yes | 9.3 (1.6) | 13.2 (1.7) | 34.1 (3.3) | 43.9 (3.5) | <0.001 |
| No | 90.7 (1.6) | 86.8 (1.7) | 65.9 (3.3) | 56.1 (3.5) | |
| Health insurance | |||||
| Uninsured | 4.8 (0.8) | 7.7 (1.5) | 12.5 (1.9) | 12.9 (2.2) | 0.002 |
| Insured | 95.2 (0.8) | 92.3 (1.5) | 87.5 (1.9) | 87.1 (2.2) | |
| Health insurance type | |||||
| Private | 65.3 (3.6) | 68.3 (3.1) | 53.6 (4.0) | 42.7 (3.3) | <0.001 |
| Medicare | 48.2 (2.7) | 42.8 (2.7) | 48.6 (4.4) | 46.8 (3.4) | 0.599 |
| Medicaid | 7.7 (1.7) | 9.1 (1.3) | 22.7 (2.8) | 27.0 (2.8) | <0.001 |
| Military/other government | 16.4 (2.1) | 13.5 (2.4) | 12.4 (2.4) | 17.3 (2.5) | 0.409 |
| Seen physician in the past year | |||||
| Yes | 98.1 (0.8) | 97.6 (0.9) | 94.0 (1.5) | 95.2 (1.1) | 0.124 |
| No | 1.9 (0.8) | 2.4 (0.9) | 6.0 (1.5) | 4.8 (1.1) | |
| Seen diabetes specialist in the past year | |||||
| Yes | 33.3 (2.9) | 24.3 (2.4) | 34.8 (2.7) | 26.6 (2.9) | 0.021 |
| No | 35.6 (3.2) | 35.5 (2.4) | 28.3 (2.5) | 36.2 (3.3) | |
| Never | 31.1 (2.4) | 40.2 (2.6) | 36.9 (2.4) | 37.2 (3.6) | |
| HbA1c checked in the past year | |||||
| Yes | 89.7 (1.2) | 81.2 (2.5) | 78.2 (2.5) | 74.9 (2.9) | 0.001 |
| No | 7.4 (1.0) | 13.1 (2.1) | 18.0 (2.1) | 19.7 (2.8) | |
| Do not know | 2.9 (0.7) | 5.7 (1.5) | 3.8 (1.1) | 5.4 (1.3) | |
| Smoking status | |||||
| Current | 5.9 (1.4) | 15.1 (2.2) | 13.6 (2.2) | 25.6 (3.1) | <0.001 |
| Former | 43.8 (3.3) | 35.2 (2.8) | 33.7 (2.7) | 32.8 (2.9) | |
| Never | 50.3 (3.0) | 49.7 (3.3) | 52.7 (3.2) | 41.6 (3.1) | |
| Diabetes medication | |||||
| Insulin only | 11.7 (1.8) | 9.0 (1.7) | 9.3 (1.7) | 18.7 (2.7) | 0.003 |
| Oral medication only | 61.4 (2.7) | 58.1 (3.3) | 54.1 (2.6) | 42.8 (3.0) | |
| Both insulin and oral | 11.2 (1.8) | 15.5 (2.3) | 18.8 (2.6) | 18.4 (1.9) | |
| None | 15.8 (2.1) | 17.4 (2.7) | 17.9 (2.1) | 20.2 (2.3) | |
| Taking antihypertensive medication | 65.7 (2.7) | 63.5 (3.0) | 57.4 (3.3) | 60.8 (2.7) | 0.094 |
| Taking antilipidemic medication | 61.3 (2.9) | 64.9 (2.2) | 50.1 (3.4) | 56.3 (2.7) | 0.007 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | |||||
| Mean | 32.0 (0.4) | 34.0 (0.5) | 33.1 (0.6) | 34.8 (0.6) | |
| <25.0 | 11.7 (1.7) | 8.5 (1.4) | 10.4 (1.7) | 8.0 (1.5) | 0.027 |
| 25.0–29.9 | 30.1 (2.8) | 23.2 (2.1) | 32.1 (2.6) | 21.1 (2.7) | |
| ≥30 | 58.2 (3.3) | 68.3 (1.7) | 57.5 (3.0) | 70.9 (3.1) | |
Boldface p values indicate statistical significance of p<0.05.
*Food insecurity is defined as marginal or low/very low food security; food secure is defined as full food security; low diet quality is defined as HEI-2015 score in the 1st or 2nd quartile; high diet quality is defined as HEI-2015 score in the 3rd or 4th quartile.
BMI, body mass index; HEI-2015, Healthy Eating Index 2015; SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.