Food insecurity, disability and age in the UK.

OBJECTIVE: To explore relationships between disability, food insecurity (FI) and age and examine how socioeconomic factors impact risk of FI among disabled people in working and older age.

DESIGN: Logistic regression models used to analyse the contribution of socioeconomic factors to gaps in risk of FI for disabled people. In models stratified into working and older age groups, differences in risk of FI for disabled and non-disabled people were examined by employment, education, and assets.

SETTING: England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, 2016 and 2018.

PARTICIPANTS: A representative sample of 6,187 adults aged 16+, of whom 28% were disabled, from the Food & You survey.

RESULTS: The gap in FI risk by disability status decreased as age increased. For ages 25-34 for disabled versus non-disabled people, risk of FI was 31% (95% CI: 21%-41%) versus 10% (8-12%); at ages 45 to 54, it was 18% (11-23%) versus 7% (5%-8%), and at ages 75+, there was no gap in risk. Accounting for socioeconomic variables halved the gap in risk among working ages. However, among working-age adults, FI among disabled people in full-time work was 15% (11%-20%) compared to only 7% (6%-9%) among non-disabled people in full-time work. Among older people, disabled people without savings were at higher risk of FI (5% (3-7%)) than non-disabled people without savings (2% (1-3%)) but having savings closed risk gap.

CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic resources partially explain disparities in FI risk when disabled. Disparities remained for people in full-time work and among people without savings in older age.