APHA 2025
Disaster food security in the United States: A scoping review of the empirical literature 2002-2022
Kerstin Schreiber, PhD, Ming Xie, PhD, Hilary Budzinski Betley, Ngozika Emezienna, Umesh Sharma, Lauren Clay PhD, MPH
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Research Question
What is the scope of the published research on disaster disruption to the food environment and food and nutrition security in the US?
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- US focused
- Disaster (natural hazard only)
- Food or nutrition security
- Food environment disruption
- Accessibility
- Availability
- Acceptability
- Agency
- Human studies (people, organizations, policy)
Exclusion Criteria
- Non-US focused
- COVID exclusive focus
- Animal, plant studies
Search Strategy
Databases
PubMed, Web of Science, PAIS, Google Scholar (top 100 results)
Search Terms
MESH
(“nutrition assistance” OR “food assistance” OR “food aid” OR “food insecurity” OR “hunger” OR “food policy” OR “nutrition policy” “Food Assistance”[Mesh])
AND
(disaster OR hurricane OR wildfire OR tornado OR earthquake OR flood OR “climate disaster” OR “Disasters”[Mesh] OR “Emergencies”[Mesh] OR “Natural Disasters”[Mesh] OR “Wildfires”[Mesh] OR “Tornadoes”[Mesh] OR “Earthquakes”[Mesh] OR “Floods”[Mesh] OR “Cyclonic Storms”[Mesh] OR “Pandemics”[Mesh])
Non-MESH
(“nutrition assistance” OR “food assistance” OR “food aid” OR “food insecurity” OR “hunger” OR “food policy” OR “nutrition policy”)
AND
(disaster OR hurricane OR wildfire OR tornado OR earthquake OR flood OR “climate disaster”)
Screening Results

Extraction Domains
- DOI
- Authors
- Publication year
- Journal name
- Funder
- Study aims
- Geographic focus
- Hazard type
- Disaster management phase
- Study population
- Sample size
- Recruitment methods
- Study design
- Data collection method(s)
- Data availability
- Dates of data collection
- Level of analysis (individual, household, community, policy, etc…)
- Food security aspect studied
- Health outcomes studied
- Nutrition assistance programs studied
- Key findings
Findings
Number of article published by year 2002-2022

Number of articles by funding source 2002-2022

Number of studies by hazard type 2002-2022

Number of studies by disaster management phase 2002-2022

Number of studies by population of focus 2002-2022
