(P02-043-23) Food Insecurity, Community Belongingness and Social Support Among Adult Transgender Individuals in Newark, New Jersey

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between food insecurity and community belongingness and social support in a sample of transgender adults living in Newark, New Jersey.

Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted using REDCap [2020-2022] and participants provided informed consent. Food insecurity was measured using the USDA's validated 6-item short-form food security module. Belongingness and social support were assessed using the adapted Transgender Community Belongingness Scale [TCBS] and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support [MSPSS], respectively. The TCBS ranges from 1-5 with higher scores indicating greater belongingness and the MSPSS ranges from 1-7 with higher scores indicating greater social support from family, friends or significant others. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to test the associations.

Results: The sample consisted of 53 participants, the majority of whom were under 45 years old [84.6%], non-Hispanic [66%], and Black or African American [50.9%]. A fifth [21.2%] were living with HIV and 62.3% were assigned male sex at birth. Most participants had an annual income below $40,000 [81.1%], were unemployed [60.4%], had a high school education or lower [54.7%], and were food insecure [53.8%]. Participants had belongingness scores of 3 and social support scores of 1.5 [family], 1.75 [friends] and 1.83 [significant other].

Results revealed that food-secure participants had significantly greater belongingness to the transgender community [3.5 vs 2.75, p=0.041] and more social support from their families [1.71 vs 1.50, p=0.028] compared to those who were food insecure. There were also non-significant trends towards food-secure individuals having greater social support from friends [2.0 vs 1.67, p=0.051] and significant others [1.96 vs 1.75, p=0.101].

Conclusions: These findings suggest that addressing community belongingness and social support may be an important factor in improving food insecurity among transgender adults. Further research with larger sample sizes are needed to explore the importance of peer community networks in improving food insecurity among transgender adults.

Funding Sources: Research reported in this publication was supported by the New Jersey Medical School Pozen Scholars Program and our community partner the North Jersey Community Research Initiative (NJCRI).