Section 8.1.1

8.1.1 - Health Status

Clients were asked to indicate their health status, then to indicate whether anyone (or anyone else) in their household was in poor health. Table 8.1.1 summarizes the results.

Table 8.1.1

HEALTH STATUS

	Adult Clients Who Pick Up Food at a Pantry	Adult Clients at a Kitchen	Adult Clients at a Shelter	Adult Clients at All Program Sites
Clients who indicated that their health was
Excellent	11.0%	12.8%	20.2%	11.7%
Very good	15.3%	17.4%	28.2%	16.2%
Good	26.7%	29.9%	25.5%	27.1%
Fair	29.6%	27.4%	17.8%	28.7%
Poor	17.3%	12.5%	8.3%	16.2%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%

Clients who indicated that someone else in the household was in poor health
Yes	20.4%	11.4%	3.0%	18.4%
No	57.8%	49.0%	46.5%	56.2%
Live alone	21.7%	39.6%	50.5%	25.4%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%

Households with at least one member reported to be in poor health	31.6%	21.1%	10.8%	29.2%
SAMPLE SIZE (N)	24,436	5,441	2,882	32,759

Overall, 16.2% of the clients at all program sites are in poor health, and 29.2% of the client households have one or more members in poor health. More details follow:

Among pantry clients, 11.0% were in excellent health, 15.3% in very good health, 26.7% in good health, and 47.0% in fair or poor health.
Among kitchen clients, 12.8% were in excellent health, 17.4% in very good health, 29.9% in good health, and 39.9% in fair or poor health.
Among shelter clients, 20.2% were in excellent health, 28.2% in very good health, 25.5% in good health, and 26.1% in fair or poor health.
31.6% of the pantry client households had at least one person in poor health.
21.1% of the kitchen client households had at least one person in poor health.
10.8% of the shelter client households had at least one person in poor health.

Source
This table was constructed based on usable responses to Questions 20 and 21 of the client survey.

Notes
The percentages presented in this table are based only on usable responses, excluding missing, don't know, and refusal responses. All usable responses were weighted as described in Chapter 3 and in the Technical Appendix volume to represent all emergency food clients of the A2H network. The sample sizes (N) also include missing data.

For client health, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 0.9% for pantry clients, 0.5% for kitchen clients, 0.1% for shelter clients, and 0.8% for all clients.

For poor health of anyone in household, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 2.3% for pantry clients, 3.8% for kitchen clients, 8.4% for shelter clients, and 2.8% for all clients.