The Impact of Evidence-Based Pediatric Food Insecurity Education on Provider Knowledge

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project was to increase primary care providers’ knowledge of food insecurity in pediatric patients by developing and presenting an evidence-based educational presentation on food insecurity.Background: In the United States in 2021, rates of food insecurity in households with children were reported at 6.1 million. Research suggests that food insecurity can lead to undernutrition, inhibit full growth potential, and permanently impair cognitive development. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends universal screening for food insecurity. Identifying food-insecure households is crucial in promoting connection to nutritional resources that aid in countering pediatric malnutrition and its resulting adverse health outcomes. The review of the literature for this project suggests a need for consistent screening and identification of food insecurity in the pediatric population. Methods: This quality improvement (QI) project used a quantitative pretest, evidence-based educational online presentation, and posttest to evaluate the pediatric primary care provider’s (PCP) knowledge of food insecurity in the pediatric population. A follow-up survey was collected two weeks after the presentation inquiring about intent to implement in future clinical practice and barriers the participants may have faced. This project was completed online via Microsoft Sway for the delivery of education and Microsoft Forms for collecting data from the pretest, posttest, and follow-up survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. Results: Results showed an increase (23%) in the mean of the test scores from pretest to posttest. Although the data analysis of the results of this project were not statistically significant (p=0.14), the sample size limitation does not exclude the possibility of the occurrence of type II error. Responses from the follow-up survey completed two weeks after the education revealed that participants (n=4) felt knowledge was gained from the presentation and found that 50% of the participants planned to screen for food insecurity in their clinical practice. Conclusions: This project highlighted the need for screening for food insecurity in the pediatric primary care setting. Future studies on providers knowledge of food insecurity in the pediatric patient should include recruitment of a larger sample size to assess effectiveness of the education.