Agnes Jensen, E-PHAP student and research study coordinator at Minneapolis VA Health Care System, has coauthored a groundbreaking study on food insecurity among U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

The study, “Food insecurity among veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” found that 27% of veterans don’t have consistent access to sufficient food. That’s drastically higher than the prevalence of food insecurity in the U.S., which is 14.5 percent.

The study also found veterans are more likely to be food insecure if they:

• Are young, report poor general health, are not married/partnered or not employed/on active duty
• Have lower income, reported a lower final military pay grade, or live with children

University of Minnesota researcher Rachel Widome led the study and VA researchers Ann Bangerter and Steven Fu are coauthors.

Read SPH story, “Coming home to hunger”