The prevalence of food insecurity in the USA has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, past studies have not examined how the food security status of college students has been impacted. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the prevalence of food insecurity; determine the proportion of students experiencing a change in food security status; and identify characteristics associated with changes in food security status from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among a sample of college students. We administered a cross-sectional online survey to students from a large public university in the Southeastern USA. The 10-item U.S. Adult Food Security Module was used to assess food security status during the spring 2020 semester both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and students self-reported a variety of individual characteristics. The overall prevalence of food insecurity increased by approximately one-third during the spring 2020 semester from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. When examining the types of changes in food security status experienced by students, 12% improved, 68% stayed the same, and 20% worsened. A variety of characteristics were associated with an improvement or worsening of food security status category from before to during the pandemic. Similar to what is seen in other reports, we found that the overall proportion of college students in our sample experiencing food insecurity increased during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, some students showed improvements in food security status. Approaches for addressing food insecurity during and beyond the pandemic are needed.

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and identify characteristics associated with food security status separately for undergraduate and graduate students. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 4819 students from a public flagship university in the Southeastern US. Students completed an online questionnaire assessing food security status over the past 12 months using the 10-item US Adult Food Security Survey Module and self-reported demographics and student characteristics. Data were collected in October and November of 2016. Analyses were stratified by student status (undergraduate or graduate). We calculated frequencies of food security status categories and used multinomial logistic regression to assess the association between food security status and student characteristics. Food insecurity rates were 25.2% for undergraduate and 17.8% for graduate students. Characteristics associated with food security status ( p < .05) for undergraduates only were gender, year in school, receipt of financial aid, cooking frequency, perceived cooking skills, and having a meal plan. For graduate students only, characteristics included age, marital status, having dependent children, enrollment status, and body mass index. Characteristics associated with food security status across both groups included race/ethnicity, perceived health, international student, and employment status. While most prior studies of college food insecurity look only at undergraduate students or combine undergraduate and graduate students into one group, we found differences between undergraduate and graduate students. It is important to consider undergraduate and graduate students as two separate groups as strategies that would be most effective for addressing food insecurity may differ between them.

Background The lumen of the gastrointestinal tract contains many substances produced from the breakdown of foodstuffs, from salivary, esophageal, intestinal, hepatic, and pancreatic secretions, and from sloughed cells present in the gastrointestinal lumen. Although these substances were traditionally regarded as waste products, there is increasing realization that many can be biologically active, either as signalling compounds or as nutrients. For example, proteins are broken down into amino acids, which are then sensed by nutrient receptors. The gut microbiome, which is at highest abundance in the ileocecum, has powerful metabolic activity, digesting and breaking down unabsorbed carbohydrates, proteins, and other ingested nutrients into phenols, amines, volatile organic compounds, methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulfide into volatile fatty acids, also called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Conclusion These latter substances are the topic of this review. In this review, we will briefly discuss recent advances in the understanding SCFA production, signalling, and absorption, followed by a detailed description and discussion of trials of SCFAs, probiotics, and prebiotics in the treatment of gastrointestinal disease, in particular ulcerative colitis (UC), pouchitis, short bowel syndrome, and obesity.

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