Study: One in four US healthcare workers faces food insecurity

Editor's Note

Financial hardship is widespread among the US healthcare workforce, with the lowest-paid workers facing rates of poverty and food insecurity comparable to those seen in the general population, JAMA Network October 22 reports. Drawing from 2020–2023 data in the US Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, researchers analyzed responses from 6,905 healthcare workers across five occupational groups. The study examined poverty status, use of public assistance, and rates of food and housing insecurity, adjusting for demographic factors such as age, race, and immigration status.

The findings reveal steep disparities tied to role and pay. Direct care and healthcare support workers—who make an average of just over $3,200 per month—reported the highest rates of hardship:

• 9.6% lived in poverty
• nearly 25% experienced food insecurity
• 13.6% faced housing instability.

Among nurses:

• 1.8% lived in poverty
• 7.4% reported food insecurity
• 5.3% faced housing instability.

For physicians and surgeons, those figures dropped to less than 1% for poverty, 4.3% for food insecurity, and 3.1% for housing instability. Multivariable analyses showed direct care and support roles carried more than six times the odds of poverty compared with physicians. They were also five times more likely to experience food insecurity and nearly 14 times more likely to face housing instability. Health technologists and technicians also faced elevated risks, particularly for food and housing insecurity.

The article notes racial and ethnic minority workers are disproportionately concentrated in these lower-wage roles, with more than 45% of direct care and support workers identifying as Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black. These inequities, the authors state, raise pressing concerns about the sustainability and ethics of current workforce structures, particularly as health systems contend with worsening staffing shortages and rising burnout.