The Hunger Vital Sign is two statements about food running out in the past 12 months. If either one is often or sometimes true, the household is at risk for food insecurity. Answer both statements to score it, see what to do with a positive screen, and record the result with the free template.
Hunger Vital Sign result template
FreeHUNGER VITAL SIGN SCREEN Date: [Date] Patient: [Name or ID, age] Visit: [Visit type and setting] Answered by: [Patient, parent or caregiver, or other household member; interpreter if used] How it was asked: [Read aloud in private, on paper, or on a tablet] ANSWERS, PAST 12 MONTHS Statement 1, worried food would run out: [Often true, sometimes true, or never true] Statement 2, food bought did not last: [Often true, sometimes true, or never true] Total: [0 to 2 statements often or sometimes true] Result: [Negative, or positive: at risk for food insecurity] CONVERSATION What the household shared: [Recent changes in work, income, housing, or family; skipped meals] Who is most affected: [Children, an infant on formula, pregnancy, older adults, special diets] Effect on health: [Blood sugar control, growth and feeding, medicines skipped to pay for food] RESOURCES AND REFERRALS Offered: [Food bank and meal program list, help applying for food and income benefits, other] Referrals: [Social work, community health worker, dietitian, or none] Household's choice: [What was accepted or declined, and consent to share contact details] FOLLOW-UP Next contact: [Who will call or see the household, and when] Screen again: [Date or visit] Clinician: [Name, credentials]
Every item as published. The total and what it means update with each answer; nothing you choose leaves this page.
For each statement, say whether it was often true, sometimes true, or never true for your household in the past 12 months.
Use it for
Read both statements word for word, or let the person answer them on paper or a tablet. They cover the past 12 months.
Avoid: Rewording the statements or turning them into a yes or no question. The screen was validated with the wording and the three answers as published.
Count the statements answered often true or sometimes true. Either one makes the screen positive.
Avoid: Waiting for both statements to be true. One is enough.
A positive screen means the household is at risk for food insecurity. It opens a conversation; it doesn’t measure how severe the problem is.
Avoid: Reading a negative screen as proof of no need. Circumstances change, so ask again at the next check-up.
Offer help the same day, and let the household choose what they want.
Avoid: Screening with nothing to offer. Have the resource list and referral steps ready before you start asking.
Food insecurity comes and goes with income, work, and health.
Each one follows the recording template. Use them to judge how much to write.
Pediatric clinic, 4-month well-baby visit, asked by the nurse in private
Answered by the mother. Statement 1, worried food would run out: sometimes true. Statement 2, food bought did not last: sometimes true. Total 2 of 2. Positive: at risk for food insecurity.
Her partner’s hours were cut in August. Formula runs short in the last week of each month; she has been buying smaller cans, and has not watered it down. Explained why formula must never be diluted. Two older children, 4 and 7, get breakfast and lunch at school and child care. Baby feeding well; weight on the 45th percentile, steady since birth.
Given the list of local food banks with opening hours, and information on food and income benefits for families with a new baby and how to apply. Referral to the clinic social worker accepted; she agreed to share her phone number.
Social worker to call her within 3 days to help with the benefit applications. Call the clinic if formula runs out before then. Screen again and check the formula supply at the 6-month visit.
Family practice, diabetes follow-up, answered on a tablet at check-in
Answered by the patient. Statement 1: never true. Statement 2: never true. Total 0 of 2. Negative.
70-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes on metformin and insulin glargine 18 units at bedtime. A1c 7.4%, down from 7.9% in the spring. Lives with her husband on two pensions; they shop weekly and cook at home. No skipped meals and no low blood sugars in the past 3 months. Can afford her insulin and test strips.
None needed today. Told her the clinic can help with food or medicine costs if anything changes. Dietitian visit already booked to review carbohydrate counting.
Screen again at her annual check-up, or sooner if her income or health changes. Diabetes review with A1c in 3 months.
A household that answers “sometimes true” to one statement screens positive. Many households at risk answer “sometimes”.
People may answer “never true” with a partner, an older child, or a visitor listening. Ask in private, and say that every family is asked.
A general question such as “Are you doing okay for food?” isn’t the screen. Read the two statements as written, with all three answers.
Asking without anything to offer lets the household down. Have resources and a referral path ready, and record what you offered and what they chose.
Vero Scribe records the Hunger Vital Sign result in your template from the visit, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation: both answers, the result, what the household shared, and the resources and referrals you offered. You review and edit every line, then copy it into your record. Vero works in 60+ languages.
Each of the two statements is answered often true, sometimes true, or never true. The screen is positive if either statement, or both, is often or sometimes true. On this page each statement answered often or sometimes true counts 1, for a total from 0 to 2; any total above 0 is positive.
The household is at risk for food insecurity: in the past 12 months they worried their food would run out, or it ran out before there was money for more. It doesn’t show how severe the problem is. Talk it through, offer resources, and refer as the household wishes.
In the 2010 study of 30,098 families with children up to age 3, a positive screen found 97% of food insecure households, with a specificity of 83%, compared with the full 18-item survey. Later studies validated it for adolescents and adults, with similarly high sensitivity.
The Hunger Vital Sign uses two statements from the 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module. The full survey measures the level of food security, from high to very low, and is used mainly in research. The two statements take under a minute and tell you who needs a conversation and help.
Anyone trained to ask it kindly and in private: front desk staff, medical assistants, nurses, community health workers, or the clinician. Patients and parents can also answer on paper or a tablet. Someone on the care team should respond to a positive screen during the visit.
Yes. It was first validated with families of young children, then for adolescents in 2015 and adults in 2017. For a child, a parent or caregiver answers for the household.
Many practices ask at every check-up, and at least once a year. Ask again when something changes, such as a job loss, a new baby, a move, or a new diagnosis.
Yes. Children’s HealthWatch charges no fee and needs no permission; it asks that you cite the 2010 validation paper by Hager and colleagues in Pediatrics. The recording template on this page is free to copy or download too.
CMS’s 10-question screen for five social needs: each domain scored on its own, counted here from 0 to 5.
Goals, medicines, and the social needs that affect them, condition by condition.
Notes and referrals for teams that screen for social needs every day.
Well-child visits, screening results, and family conversations, recorded.
Every tool, by area, with what its scores mean.
Vero records scores, findings, and plans in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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