State’s first Arkansas Health Survey: 29% food insecure

Twenty-nine percent of Arkansas respondents reported being food insecure in the inaugural Arkansas Health Survey, which attracted 10,000 respondents ages 18 and over across all 75 counties.

Five counties had rates higher than 33%: Crittenden, Union, Columbia, Sebastian and Madison. The figures were based on answers to six food security-related questions.

Only California has done a similar statewide survey, said Benjamin Amick, Ph.D., a co-principal investigator, associate dean for research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health and a professor of epidemiology.

With the federal Department of Health and Human Services discontinuing the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, this will be the only statewide source for some of this information, Amick said. A dashboard, AR-COMPASS (Community Outcomes Mapping Platform for Arkansas State Survey) will be available in 2026.

Respondents were asked roughly 70 questions related to health and socioeconomic factors in the fall and winter of 2024 and also this spring. Surveys were done online, via paper and via phone. They were also translated into Spanish.

Amick led the survey along with Michael Niño, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

The Arkansas Health Survey is managed by the University of Arkansas’ Arkansas Health Equity and Access Lab. It was funded by the University of Arkansas and UAMS.

“The state of Arkansas needs a source of health information that everybody can use,” Amick said in a press release. “The motivation for the survey is to produce something that’s evidence-based and helps policy makers determine where they need to do health-related work and how successful the work is. Our goal is to provide useful place-based information to decision makers to support evidence-informed decisions.”

In other findings, 86% percent said they saw a doctor within the last year, while 65% used the internet to communicate with the doctor’s office.

But 22% had problems paying or were unable to pay their medical bills, 56% worried about paying their bills if they became sick, and 9% said they had no place to access health care if they became sick. Ten percent lacked reliable transportation. Nineteen percent said they had sought mental health care.

Many health problems were prevalent throughout the state, even as they might be higher in certain areas. While Desha, Chicot and Mississippi Counties had the highest rates of diagnosed hypertension, 83 of the state’s 686 census tracts, spread largely across the state. had rates greater than 50%, Amick said. The state’s obesity rate was 38.9%. Meanwhile, 152 tracts had rates greater than 43%. Tobacco use was 24.1%. Twelve counties had rates greater than 28%.

In addition, 32% of respondents reported being lonely, and 36% have experienced three or more extreme weather events.

The data will be analyzed and disseminated by the University of Arkansas, the UAMS College of Public Health, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Arkansas State University and Southern Arkansas University.