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Study: Families Who Struggle With Food Insecurity Also Face Higher Health Care Costs

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With hundreds of thousands of people in Cook County already having trouble finding enough healthy food, a new study reveals that struggle might bring an added burden: higher health care costs.

A new study by the University of Illinois and others found households considered food insecure – meaning they find it hard to buy enough nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life – have higher health care costs than households that are food secure. That included costs for inpatient hospitalization, emergency room visits, surgery, medication, and more.

According to the study, the less food security a family has, the greater their health care costs.

"We already know that adults in households that are food insecure have more negative health outcomes than adults in food-secure households," University of Illinois economist Craig Gundersen said in an article on the school's website. "However, the cost of the negative health outcomes associated with food insecurity were unknown. This study allows us to quantify these additional costs."

The study analyzed data from more than 67,000 residents in Ontario from 2005 to 2010.

"After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, total costs were 23 percent higher for adults in marginally food-insecure households, 49 percent higher for those in moderately food-insecure households, and 121 percent higher for those in severely food-insecure households, compared with adults in food-secure households," Gundersen said. "These higher costs are staggering."

While Gundersen said a similar analysis isn't possible for the U.S., because of the differences in health care systems in Canada, but he said there are enough similarities that the conclusions regarding the link between food security and health care costs are likely present in the United States.

Last year, a separate study found nearly 800,000 people in Cook County – including one in five children – are food insecure. The data in the Map The Meal Gap 2014 study was based on a combination of factors from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey and county-level factors such as unemployment, median income, poverty, homeownership, and demographic measures.

Gundersen said health care providers should screen patients for food insecurity, and help them access food assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps.

For more information on Gundersen's study, click here.

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