Many Wisconsin residents face food insecurity

More than 13 percent of Wisconsin residents —both urban and rural— who took part in a Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) interview reported that they worried about going hungry in the past year. That translates to an estimated 740,000 or more Wisconsin residents, according to study leader Natalie Guerrero, a medical student in the School of Medicine and Public Health’s Medical Scientist Training Program. Far from being predominantly an urban issue, a concern about not having enough to eat affects people in rural and even suburban areas. The study’s leaders emphasized that health care professionals should take care to assess their patients’ risk for food insecurity and its negative health implications. The study, funded in part by the Wisconsin Partnership Program, was published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.

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