Social determinants and lifestyle risk factors only partially explain the higher prevalence of food insecurity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian state of Victoria: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundThe prevalence of food insecurity is substantially higher among Australians of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. The purpose of this study is to explain the relationship between food insecurity and Aboriginal and Torres Islander status in the state of Victoria.MethodsData were obtained from the 2008 Victorian Population Health Survey; a cross-sectional landline computer-assisted telephone interview survey of 34,168 randomly selected Victorians aged 18 years and older; including 339 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We categorised a respondent as food insecure, if in the previous 12 months, they reported having run out of food and not being able to afford to buy more. We used multivariable logistic regression to adjust for age, sex, socioeconomic status (household income), lifestyle risk factors (smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity), social support (ability to get help from family, friends or neighbours), household composition (lone parent status, household with a child, and household size), and geographic location (rurality).ResultsAboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (20.3%) were more likely than their non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counterparts (5.4%) to have experienced food insecurity; odds ratio (OR) = 4.5 (95% CI; 2.7-7.4). Controlling for age, SES, smoking, obesity and inability to get help from family or friends reduced the odds ratio by 38%; ORadjusted = 2.8 (1.6-5.0).ConclusionsSocial determinants and lifestyle risk factors only partially explained the higher prevalence of food insecurity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Victoria. Further research is needed to explain the disparity in food insecurity between the two populations in order to inform and guide corrective action.

Anaemia in early childhood among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children of Far North Queensland: a retrospective cohort study

“…The high cost of nutritious food has been widely reported, while household food insecurity is exacerbated by smoking 49,50 . The implications of poor health of mothers on the future health of their children have been raised previously 51 .…”

Eating in the City: A Review of the Literature on Food Insecurity and Indigenous People Living in Urban Spaces

“…There were a few notable studies in the literature search that provided a macro-level analysis, suggesting the data may be available if researchers choose to specifically examine urban populations. One study that looked at broader trends focused on Victoria, the most highly populated state in Australia [5]. However, the study failed to differentiate between urban and regional findings (notably, in the city of Melbourne), making it difficult to find and highlight areas of particular need.…”

“…Indigenous food security in remote, rural, and on-reserve populations has been well studied in Canada, the United States, and Australia [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Studies identify colonialism [8]; barriers to accessing traditional foods (e.g., [1,2,9,10]); dietary transition (e.g., [11,12]); diet and health (e.g., [13,14]]; food and livelihood change (e.g., [15]); and the costs of commercial or market based foods (e.g., [16,17]) as the major causes of food insecurity.…”

The Application of Wearable Technologies to Improve Healthcare in the World’s Poorest People

“…Wearable technology units can be successfully disseminated to hundreds of millions of people-as has been shown in the commercial space. In poverty dense areas, the challenges are greater and include: 1) low literacy rates; 2) the absence of a culture of "healthiness"; 3) oftentimes, a cultural mistrust of "technology"; 4) low health and technology literacy rates; 5) poorly developed understanding of how best to integrate data from wearable sensors into health programming and local health systems and 6) failure to appreciate the impact of the social determinates of health [36] such as violence, drug abuse and lack of healthcare systems. Such issues represent the principal challenges for exploiting the massive potential benefit that wearable sensors offer for improving human health.…”