School Absenteeism is Linked to Household Food Insecurity in School Catchment Areas in Southern Nevada
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-15-2021
Publication Title
Public Health Nutrition
First page number:
1
Last page number:
7
Abstract
© The Authors 2021. Objectives: Food security and school attendance are both important for health, well-being, and academic performance of children and adolescents. However, their intersection remains underexamined, especially in the United States. This study considered the association between elementary school-level absenteeism and household food insecurity. Design: This study linked school-level absenteeism and household food insecurity rates using GIS mapping and applied the tobit regression model to examine their association. Setting: The Clark County, Nevada public school district - the fifth largest in the U.S. and in a state with disproportionate food insecurity and chronic school absenteeism rates. Participants: Data consisted of school-level absenteeism rates from 185 elementary schools and Census Tract-level household food insecurity rates. Results: Average daily attendance rates were lower for schools with catchment areas that had higher average household food insecurity (FI), decreasing by -0.0232% per 1% increase in FI rate (p-value=0.022). They were also significantly associated with most absenteeism risk factors. Average daily attendance rate was negatively associated with Free and Reduced Lunch eligibility percentage (-0.010 per 1% increase in FI, p-value<0.001), and Individualized Education Program participation percentage (-0.039% per 1% increase in FI, p-value=0.033), but positively associated with parent-teacher conference participation rate (0.006% per 1% increase in FI, p-value=0.025) and white student percentage (0.011% per 1% increase in FI, p-value=0.022). Conclusions: This study suggests a link between household food insecurity and elementary school-level absenteeism. Understanding this link is important for policy and practice because schools are frequent settings for food insecurity mitigation interventions.
Keywords
Food insecurity; Food security; School absenteeism; School attendance
Disciplines
Education Policy | International and Community Nutrition
Language
English
Repository Citation
Coughenour, C.,
Conway Kleven, B.,
Gakh, M.,
Stephen, H.,
Chien, L.,
Labus, B.,
Whaley, R.
(2021, February).
School Absenteeism is Linked to Household Food Insecurity in School Catchment Areas in Southern Nevada.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/env_occ_health_presentations/8
