Identification of food insecurity factors in French-speaking Belgium: a qualitative study

Abstract

BackgroundDiet is an essential determinant of health. Among the health determinants, we find access problems that are summarized as food insecurity. While such food insecurity has been studied in other countries and correlated to several health problems, it has been scarcely assessed in Belgium. The purpose of this work was to determine the factors of food insecurity existing within the Belgian population.MethodFrom November 2016 to February 2017, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 19 adults present attending the waiting rooms of six Public Social Action Centers in French-speaking Belgium, analyzed by grounded theory.ResultsIn Belgium, for given food preferences and needs, food insecurity could be summarized as inadequacy between necessary and available resources within two dimensions: at the access level, for financial, temporal, informational, and freedom of action, and at the food use level, for temporal factors, material, knowledge, and skills. In these situations of inadequacy, participants reported finding either strategies to restore balance, or being forced to alter the quality or quantity of their diet.ConclusionWhile several factors of food insecurity may exist in Belgium, it appears essential that the first line of care these factors into consideration, since they could interfere with care and health, and because the first line of care is ideally placed to inform and refer the patients in question. Several courses of action are proposed in this work, which must still be confirmed by other studies.

Determinants of food insecurity among adults residing in peri-urban municipal settings in Flanders, Belgium

“…A strength of this study is that it is one of the rst to assess food insecurity in a Belgian context. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies on food insecurity have been conducted in Belgium (24,57). Therefore, this study lls this gap by assessing the determinants of food insecurity in a non-English speaking European country.…”

Perspective: Food and Nutrition Insecurity in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Dietitians

“…From a socioecological perspective, food (and nutrition) insecurity is primarily a social problem with nutritional consequences. According to Huberland et al [52], food insecurity is the “inadequacy between necessary and available resources” along” 2 dimensions: at the access level, for financial, temporal, informational, and freedom of action; and at the food use level, for temporal factors, material, knowledge, and skills.” In this way, food insecurity in Europe threatens not only the biological function of food (that is, nutrition), but also significant social and cultural roles, such as sharing with loved ones, celebrating, and savoring special foods (for example, home-cooked desserts and family recipes). Ultimately, food insecurity impedes the ability to consume an adequate and health-promoting diet and choose what to eat, how to acquire, prepare, and consume food, thus compelling individuals and families to satisfy this fundamental need in socially suboptimal ways.…”

Perspective: Food and Nutrition Insecurity in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Dietitians

“…According to Huberland et al. [ 52 ], food insecurity is the “inadequacy between necessary and available resources” along” 2 dimensions: at the access level, for financial, temporal, informational, and freedom of action; and at the food use level, for temporal factors, material, knowledge, and skills.” In this way, food insecurity in Europe threatens not only the biological function of food (that is, nutrition), but also significant social and cultural roles, such as sharing with loved ones, celebrating, and savoring special foods (for example, home-cooked desserts and family recipes). Ultimately, food insecurity impedes the ability to consume an adequate and health-promoting diet and choose what to eat, how to acquire, prepare, and consume food, thus compelling individuals and families to satisfy this fundamental need in socially suboptimal ways.…”