Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 30:9:763994.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.763994. eCollection 2021.

Food Access, Diet Quality, and Nutritional Status of Older Adults During COVID-19: A Scoping Review

Emily J Nicklett  1 , Kimson E Johnson  2   3 , Lisa M Troy  4 , Maitreyi Vartak  5 , Ann Reiter  1
Affiliations

Food Access, Diet Quality, and Nutritional Status of Older Adults During COVID-19: A Scoping Review

Emily J Nicklett et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has imposed challenges for older adults to access food, particularly in minority, lower income, and rural communities. However, the impact of COVID-19 on food access, diet quality, and nutrition of diverse older adult populations has not been systematically assessed. Objective: To examine changes in food access, diet quality, and nutritional status among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these nutrition-related outcomes using the framework of the socio-ecological model. Methods: An electronic search was conducted on 3 databases (PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science) on March 7, 2021. Original, peer-reviewed English-language studies published 10/1/2019-3/1/2021 were considered for which the mean age of participants was 50 years and older. In order to be considered, studies must have examined food access, food security, or nutrition constructs as an outcome. Results: The initial search yielded 13,628 results, of which 9,145 were duplicates. Of the remaining 4,483 articles, 13 articles were in scope and therefore selected in the final analysis, which can be characterized as descriptive (n = 5), analytical (n = 6), and correlational (n = 2). Studies were conducted among community-dwelling older adult populations (n = 7) as well as those temporarily residing in hospital settings (n = 6) in 10 countries. None of the in-scope studies examined the impact of food programs or specific public policies or disaggregated data by race/ethnicity. Conclusions: More research is needed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on food access/security and the differential barriers experienced by older adult populations.

Keywords: COVID-19; diet quality; food access; food security; nutritional status; older adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Literature search strategy: sources and exclusion criteria (published October 1, 2019 to March 1, 2021). CINAHL, PubMed, and Web of Science. Key search terms for capturing food access during COVID-19 included food access (or food security, food insecurity, diet, nutrition), older adults (or older adult, elder, elderly), and COVID-19 (or coronavirus). Above figure adapted from Moher et al. (38).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bellavia A, Larsson SC, Bottai M, Wolk A, Orsini N. Fruit and vegetable consumption and all-cause mortality: a dose-response analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. (2013) 98:454–9. 10.3945/ajcn.112.056119 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nicklett EJ, Kadell AR. Fruit and vegetable intake among older adults: a scoping review. Maturitas. (2013) 75:P305–12. 10.1016/j.maturitas.2013.05.005 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nicklett EJ, Semba RD, Xue QL, Tian J, Sun K, Cappola AR, et al. . Fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and mortality in older community-dwelling women. J Am Geriatr Soc. (2013) 60:862–8. 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.03924.x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wolfson JA, Leung CW. Food insecurity and COVID-19: disparities in early effects for US adults. Nutrients. (2020) 12:1648. 10.3390/nu12061648 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coleman-Jensen A, Rabbit MP, Gregory CA, Singh A. Household Food Security in the United States in 2018, ERR-270. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service; (2019).

Publication types