Gundersen earns Dean's Research Recognition Reserve Award

From biofuel economies in Iowa to food insecurity among American Indians, Craig Gundersen tackles new research projects on a regular basis. His years of work have paid off, as Gundersen was named as a recipient of the Dean’s Research Recognition Reserve Award from the College of Human Sciences (CHS).

 

"The Reserve Award is a runner up award," said Cheryl Achterberg, dean of the College of Human Sciences. "Craig met all of the guidelines and standards for this prestigious award and we want to recognize him for his outstanding work," she said. Marian Kohut was honored with the top award.

 

Gundersen, associate professor, human development and family studies, has focused much of his research on the topic of food insecurity in the United States. Food insecurity describes circumstances when a family doesn’t have enough money to access healthy food to sustain life. Within this broad topic, Gundersen has several specific research interests regarding food insecurity including the connection between homelessness and food insecurity, the dynamic determinants of food insecurity, the food insecurity status of American Indians, food insecurity among pregnant women, the impact of food insecurity on children’s mental and physical health, the extent of food insecurity in Iowa in comparison to surrounding states, the relationship between food insecurity and childhood obesity, and the extent of food insecurity among seniors in America.

 

Among those research areas, Gundersen has recently completed a series of three studies involving food insecurity on the populations of American Indians, food stamp recipients, and childhood obesity. These three articles were used in the nomination process for the Dean’s Research Recognition Award. Each has appeared, respectively, in the publications Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Journal of Nutrition.

 

The study, “Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity: An Application to American Indians in the United States,” takes a close look at this impoverished ethnic group and compares the differences in food insecurities of North American Indians to other ethnic groups. Gundersen said there has never been a national study looking at food insecurity among this population. The paper examined alternative ways to measure food insecurity, using continuous measures along with categorical measures. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics, via the University of Arizona, American Indian Studies Program.

 

The second paper, “Food Stamps and Food Insecurity: What Can Be Learned in the Presence of Nonclassical Measurement Error?” focuses on the paradox of higher food insecurity rates among food stamp participants in comparison to non-participants. In particular, Gundersen and co-author Brent Kreider, associate professor, economics, examined the role of underreporting of food stamp participation in national surveys. They found that, unless one is willing to assume very low levels of misreporting of food stamp participation status (an assumption that would be at odds with previous work looking at underreporting in comparison to administrative data), one cannot say with confidence that food stamp participants are at greater risk of food insecurity than non-participants.  This study was funded by the USDA, Economic Research Service Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics, via the University of Wisconsin, Institute for Research on Poverty.

 

Perhaps the study that has drawn the most media attention is, “No Association between Child-Specific Food Insecurity and Overweight in a Sample of 10-15 Year Old Low-Income Youth.” This research project examined the relationships between food insecurity and childhood obesity. Previous studies have looked at this on a household level, not the individual child, Gundersen said. What they found was a null relationship between childhood food insecurity and childhood obesity. With an important and timely issue like childhood obesity, it was quickly picked up by media organizations such as the Associated Press and was published in hundreds of media outlets. The results from this study were funded from the USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. 

 

For the future, Gundersen said he will continue to focus on new areas of food insecurity, an issue, he said, that affects millions of people in the U.S.

 

“I have two projects; one looks at food insecurity on health outcomes; for those who are food insecure, they often have worse health outcomes (than others), but we know this can be misreported, and if that happens, how does that change things?” Gundersen said. “This is funded through the Harris School at the University of Chicago through the USDA. I’m also studying food insecurity amongst seniors in the U.S. This work looks at the extent of food insecurity in that population, the causes and consequences of is, and the projections of hunger 20 years into the future. It’s funded by the Meals on Wheels Association of America, via funding from Harrah’s Casinos.”

 

While most of Gundersen’s work is done on a national scope, he said the findings can be related back to Iowans, furthering the goals of the CHS to improve the health and well-being of all people.

 

“We may live in the nation’s breadbasket, but people need to be aware that food insecurity happens everywhere, even in Iowa,” Gundersen said. “Food insecurity is a key component of the well-being of people across the state and U.S., and this work directly relates to that.”

 

The award, he said, reflects not only on his work, but on the College as a whole.

 

“People in our College are doing research that is relevant to improving the health of people across the U.S.,” Gundersen said. “We have many excellent researchers here demonstrating this.”