Food Insecurity and Mental Health among Females in High-Income Countries

Abstract

Food insecurity is a persistent concern in high-income countries, and has been associated with poor mental health, particularly among females. We conducted a scoping review to characterize the state of the evidence on food insecurity and mental health among women in high-income countries. The research databases PubMed, EMBASE, and psycINFO were searched using keywords capturing food insecurity, mental health, and women. Thirty-nine articles (representing 31 unique studies/surveys) were identified. Three-quarters of the articles drew upon data from a version of the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module. A range of mental health measures were used, most commonly to measure depression and depressive symptoms, but also anxiety and stress. Most research was cross-sectional and showed associations between depression and food insecurity; longitudinal analyses suggested bidirectional relationships (with food insecurity increasing the risk of depressive symptoms or diagnosis, or depression predicting food insecurity). Several articles focused on vulnerable subgroups, such as pregnant women and mothers, women at risk of homelessness, refugees, and those who had been exposed to violence or substance abuse. Overall, this review supports a link between food insecurity and mental health (and other factors, such as housing circumstances and exposure to violence) among women in high-income countries and underscores the need for comprehensive policies and programs that recognize complex links among public health challenges.

Factors Associated with Food Insecurity Following Hurricane Harvey in Texas

“…Food insecurity poses serious health risks such as poor nutrition [2,3], cardiovascular disease [4], poor quality of life [5], poor self-rated physical and mental health [6], and poor functional health and restricted activity [7]. Food insecurity has also been associated with poor health outcomes in children, including higher rates of acute infections, developmental problems, mental health problems [8], and chronic conditions [3,[9][10][11][12]. Food insecurity disproportionately affects households in rural areas, headed by a single adults with children [13], predominantly Black (non-Hispanic) households [14], and households with children under the age of six-many of the same groups that are socially vulnerable to disasters [15].…”

Mental and substance use disorders and food insecurity among homeless adults participating in the At Home/Chez Soi study

“…Food insecurity is the lack of or limited access to food or to nutritious diet because of financial constraints, and is estimated to affect more than two thirds of individuals who experience homelessness with a mental disorder. [12][13][14][15][16][17] While having a severe mental disorder is an underlying contributor to food insecurity [11,18], the relationships are bidirectional; food insecurity is also a risk factor for mental health problems, including depressive symptoms, mood disorder, stress and anxiety, [19][20][21][22] suicidality, [19,23,24] substance abuse, [15,25] and poor cognitive performance [26,27].…”

Correlation Between Nutritional Deficit and the Presence of Depressive Symptoms: Comparative Study Between Elderly Brazilians and Portuguese in Primary Health Care

“…Individuals in our study who were at risk of malnutrition had mild depressive symptoms in both countries, corroborating other ndings in Taiwan, which also signi cantly associated the risk of malnutrition with depressive symptoms, where similar scales were used to measure these aspects, however with elderly people considered fragile (39) . Our results may be associated with poor eating habits due to loss of appetite, which is aggravated by decreased food intake and lack of palatability and usually causes malnutrition with the risk of increased malnutrition when associated with depression (41) .…”