|
Nearly one in three U.S. adults with a chronic disease has problems paying for food, medicine, or both. Researchers at Harvard and the University of California at San Francisco studied data from the 2011 U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Health Interview Survey, and of the 10,000 adults who reported that they had a chronic disease such as diabetes, asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure, stroke, a mental health problem, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nearly one in five said they had problems affording food during the past 30 days, qualifying as “food insecure.” Nearly one in four said they had skipped medication dosages because of cost. More than one in ten said they had problems paying for both food and medication. Among those whose illnesses were most diet-related, like diabetes and heart disease, individuals were particularly concerned with finding the right food needed to stay healthy.
|