Prior incarceration and food insecurity trajectories through older adulthood: findings from the Health and Retirement Study

Introduction Prior cross-sectional research has identified incarceration as a risk factor for food insecurity across the life course. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies on the relationship between prior incarceration and food insecurity over time. Methods This study uses biennial data across 10 time points from the Health and Retirement Study (years 2012–2022) to examine the association between prior incarceration and longitudinal trajectories of food insecurity among adults aged 55 and older in the USA (N=8229). Group-based trajectory modelling was used to assess patterns of food insecurity status over time. Multinomial logistic regression assessed the relationship between prior incarceration and food insecurity trajectory group membership. Results Three food insecurity trajectory groups were identified: no food insecurity (86.2%), declining food insecurity (11.0%) and chronic food insecurity (2.8%). Results from the multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that a history of incarceration was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of membership in the Declining Food Insecurity (relative risk ratio (RRR)=1.80, 95% CI 1.24 to 2.60) and Chronic Food Insecurity groups (RRR=2.14, 95% CI 1.35 to 3.39), relative to No Food Insecurity group after adjusting for covariates. However, after controlling for household income and wealth, this association was attenuated and remained statistically significant only for the Declining Food Insecurity group (RRR=1.59, 95% CI 1.06 to 2.37). Conclusions A history of incarceration is associated with a greater risk of food insecurity across older adulthood, though this relationship appears to be largely due to disparities in socioeconomic status.