Thomas Vidic, MD, said food insecurity often goes hand-in-hand with lack of medication adherence, lack of regular medical care, and a host of other issues. Dr. Vidic is a neurologist at the Elkhart Clinic, Ind., and an adjunct clinical professor of neurology at Indiana University.
“When a person has food insecurity, they likely have other problems, and they’re going to degenerate faster,” said Dr. Vidic, who was not part of the study. “This is one important component, and it’s one more way of getting a handle on people who are failing.”
Dr. Vidic, who has dealt with the issue of food insecurity with his own patients, said he suspects the self-report nature of the study may hide the true scale of the problem.
“I suspect the numbers might actually be higher,” he said, adding that the study fills a gap in the literature with a large, nationally representative sample.
“We’re looking for issues to help with the elderly as far as what can we do to keep dementia from progressing,” he said. “There are some things that make sense, but we’ve never had this kind of data before.”
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Kim and Dr. Vidic have reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.