The prevalence of food insecurity in the USA has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, past studies have not examined how the food security status of college students has been impacted. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the prevalence of food insecurity; determine the proportion of students experiencing a change in food security status; and identify characteristics associated with changes in food security status from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among a sample of college students. We administered a cross-sectional online survey to students from a large public university in the Southeastern USA. The 10-item U.S. Adult Food Security Module was used to assess food security status during the spring 2020 semester both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and students self-reported a variety of individual characteristics. The overall prevalence of food insecurity increased by approximately one-third during the spring 2020 semester from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. When examining the types of changes in food security status experienced by students, 12% improved, 68% stayed the same, and 20% worsened. A variety of characteristics were associated with an improvement or worsening of food security status category from before to during the pandemic. Similar to what is seen in other reports, we found that the overall proportion of college students in our sample experiencing food insecurity increased during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, some students showed improvements in food security status. Approaches for addressing food insecurity during and beyond the pandemic are needed.

A number of studies have measured college student food insecurity prevalence higher than the national average; however, no multicampus regional study among students at 4-y institutions has been undertaken in the Appalachian and Southeast regions of the United States. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among college students in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, and to determine the association between food-insecurity status and money expenditures, coping strategies, and academic performance among a regional sample of college students. This regional, cross-sectional, online survey study included 13,642 college students at 10 public universities. Food-insecurity status was measured through the use of the USDA Adult Food Security Survey. The outcomes were associations between food insecurity and behaviors determined with the use of the money expenditure scale (MES), the coping strategy scale (CSS), and the academic progress scale (APS). A forward-selection logistic regression model was used with all variables significant from individual Pearson chi-square and Wilcoxon analyses. The significance criterion α for all tests was 0.05. The prevalence of food insecurity at the universities ranged from 22.4% to 51.8% with an average prevalence of 30.5% for the full sample. From the forward-selection logistic regression model, MES (OR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.40, 1.55), CSS (OR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.21), and APS (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91, 0.99) scores remained significant predictors of food insecurity. Grade point average, academic year, health, race/ethnicity, financial aid, cooking frequency, and health insurance also remained significant predictors of food security status. Food insecurity prevalence was higher than the national average. Food-insecure college students were more likely to display high money expenditures and exhibit coping behaviors, and to have poor academic performance.

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and identify characteristics associated with food security status separately for undergraduate and graduate students. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 4819 students from a public flagship university in the Southeastern US. Students completed an online questionnaire assessing food security status over the past 12 months using the 10-item US Adult Food Security Survey Module and self-reported demographics and student characteristics. Data were collected in October and November of 2016. Analyses were stratified by student status (undergraduate or graduate). We calculated frequencies of food security status categories and used multinomial logistic regression to assess the association between food security status and student characteristics. Food insecurity rates were 25.2% for undergraduate and 17.8% for graduate students. Characteristics associated with food security status (p < .05) for undergraduates only were gender, year in school, receipt of financial aid, cooking frequency, perceived cooking skills, and having a meal plan. For graduate students only, characteristics included age, marital status, having dependent children, enrollment status, and body mass index. Characteristics associated with food security status across both groups included race/ethnicity, perceived health, international student, and employment status. While most prior studies of college food insecurity look only at undergraduate students or combine undergraduate and graduate students into one group, we found differences between undergraduate and graduate students. It is important to consider undergraduate and graduate students as two separate groups as strategies that would be most effective for addressing food insecurity may differ between them.