Unmet Health Care Needs Among Older People in Canada: Does Household Food Insecurity Matter?

Background Canada is undergoing a demographic shift, with projections indicating that over 25% of the country's population will be 65 years or older by 2063. While this has raised critical concerns about Canada's preparedness to meet the social and healthcare needs of an aging population, the increasing incidence of food insecurity is particularly affecting vulnerable groups, such as older Canadians, with implications for their healthcare service utilization. Despite this observation, there are nascent studies examining the role of household food insecurity status on unmet health-care needs among older people in Canada. The main objective of our study is to assess the association between household food insecurity and unmet health-care needs among older Canadians. Methods We used data from a selected sample of 21,178 participants as part of the 2017-18 Canadian Community Health Survey and applied logistic regression analysis. Results Our findings indicate that older people experiencing any type of food insecurity, that is, either moderate (OR=3.07, p<.01) or severe (OR=4.09, p<.01) were more likely to have reported unmet health-care needs compared to their counterparts in food secure households, even after controlling for a range of demographic, socioeconomic, and health and health-care variables. Our finding is concerning, considering that older people in Canada who are in most need of health-care services due to their food insecurity status are instead reporting unmet health-care needs. Conclusion This revelation calls for urgent policy attention to reduce the episodes of household food insecurity among older people in Canada. Specifically, to improve their access to health-care services, providing them with periodic grocery rebates as part of the social protection package for seniors in Canada would help mitigate the problem of food insecurity among them.