6/25/2024 –
When you get sick, your path to wellness depends on more than your health care. For someone diagnosed with diabetes, for example, access to nutritious food can be just as important as insulin. Health care providers and policymakers are increasingly recognizing the health impacts of social drivers such as access to healthy food, transportation, and safe housing.
But even as new federal incentives require health systems to collect information that would help them identify if that new diabetes patient lives in a food desert, it’s not always clear what to do with that information. In a draft recommendation published on Tuesday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, made up of national experts who advise on evidence-based preventative medicine interventions, found no strong evidence that screening for food insecurity in primary care settings improves health outcomes…
