Understanding the impact of food insecurity status on unmet healthcare needs among Canadians

ABSTRACT

Although Canada’s Health Act enshrines citizens’ access to healthcare regardless of their socioeconomic status, there are concerns that increasing food insecurity in the country could be undermining Canadians’ access to healthcare services. Therefore, our study sought to examine the association between food insecurity status and unmet healthcare needs by using the 2017–18 Canadian Community Health Survey and applying logistic regression analysis. Our findings revealed that Canadians with moderate food insecurity (OR = 1.95, p < 0.001) and severe food insecurity (OR = 2.34, p < 0.001) status were more likely to report unmet healthcare needs compared to their counterparts with food security. Based on our findings, we call for the urgency in addressing the increasing episodes of food insecurity in Canada to increase healthcare utilization.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• unmet healthcare needs
• Canadian community health survey
• Canada

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).