The Impact of Food Insecurity on Diabetes Prevalence in the US: A look at the Northeast and the Midwest

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions globally. Various risk factors have been found to be associated with the incidence of diabetes. These include genetic predispositions, physical activity and diet. However, less attention has been given to the potential risk of food insecurity to diabetes prevalence. Therefore, the goal of this study was to look at the prevalence of food insecurity and diabetes in New York and Ohio, and try to see if a correlation exists between food insecurity and diabetes prevalence in these states. In our methods, we used the 2019 data from County Health Rankings (CHR) on both food insecurity and diabetes prevalence. We then used unpaired t-tests to compare food insecurity rates and diabetes prevalence between the two states. Finally, we used a Pearson correlation test to see if any correlation existed between food insecurity and diabetes prevalence in both states. After our analysis, we found that both food insecurity rates (13.69%) and diabetes prevalence (12.54%) were higher in Ohio than in New York State (11.03% and 10.63% respectively) in 2019. We also found a small but significant positive correlation between food insecurity and diabetes prevalence in both Ohio and New York State in 2019