ArticleAJPM focus2025
Understanding the Reasons Why Patients With Food Insecurity Decline Social Assistance at a Large Academic Medical Center.
Article in AJPM focus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Examining the role of social workers within clinical metabolic genetics care.Molecular genetics and metabolism reports · 2026Review
- A reinforcement learning framework for modeling cultural inertia in public welfare resource allocation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Introduction: Despite the recent expansions of clinical screening for food insecurity, research shows large discrepancies between the number of patients who report food insecurity and those who request assistance. In this qualitative study of patients with food insecurity who declined social assistance, the authors aimed to understand the patients' reasons for not seeking food-related assistance and explore their perspectives on addressing food insecurity with their healthcare provider. Methods: At a large academic medical center in southeast Michigan, the authors conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with 31 English-speaking adult primary care patients who had screened positive for food insecurity at a previous clinic encounter and subsequently declined assistance from a trained social worker. The interview guide explored patients' reasons for declining social assistance, perspectives on clinical screening for food insecurity and other social risk factors, and the extent to which they discussed their needs with their provider. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the constant comparative method to reveal emergent themes. Results: The mean age of the participants was 48.2 years, and 71% were women. The most prominent reasons for patients with food insecurity not seeking social assistance were the belief that the potential resources would be redundant or not helpful and previous negative experiences with receiving food assistance. Several patients also did not remember or know that they had declined assistance. Most patients believed that healthcare providers should be knowledgeable about patients' food insecurity status to better inform care delivery. However, patients expressed discomfort, fear, or embarrassment in revealing this information and emphasized the importance of providers fostering a supportive and empathetic healthcare environment. Conclusions: Strategies to connect patients with food assistance must target multiple levels, including improving assistance methods, increasing provider knowledge, and prioritizing patient comfort.
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Registered trials
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