We utilized the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), 2009, 2011/2012 data to select CHIS participants who were aged 18 or older and reported doctor diagnosis of T2DM; resulting in a total of 8252 participants. Food insecurity was defined as: living at or above 200% federal poverty level (FPL), living below 200% FPL but food secure, living below 200% FPL and food insecure. A secondary exposure variable of interest was self-efficacy, based on the CHIS-provided variable of confidence to manage T2DM. All analyses were survey weighted with alpha less than .05 noting significance.
Those with low food security (12.96%) and low-self efficacy (15.14%), reported significantly higher prevalence of T2DM-related healthcare utilization, as compared to their counterparts. Both living with low food security and having low self-efficacy were also associated with over two-fold increase in healthcare utilization.
Our results demonstrate the cumulative need for community-based resources to improve the continuum of care and ensure that such at-risk populations have adequate resources for disease management.