scholarly journals Food Insecurity, Food Environments, and Disparities in Diet Quality and Obesity

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 498-498
Author(s):  
Yeon Jin Choi

Abstract Food insecurity is a public health concern that is associated with poor diet and obesity. Poor food environments with low access to healthy, affordable food may amplify the negative impact of food insecurity on diet and obesity. This study aims to investigate whether food insecurity and food environments are jointly associated with an increased risk of poor diet quality and obesity. We used data from a nationally representative sample of 6,395 older adults in the Health and Retirement Study Health Care and Nutrition Survey and the National Neighborhood Data Archive. Weighted regression models were estimated to examine the relationship between food insecurity and food environments with diet quality and obesity. Both food insecurity and poor food environment were associated with lower healthy eating index scores, indicating poorer quality diet. Food insecure older adults were more likely to be obese than food secure older adults and poor food environments exacerbate the negative impact of food insecurity on obesity risk. However, there was no statistical difference in obesity risk by food environment among food secure respondents. Findings from this study highlight the negative impact of limited access to healthy food due to financial difficulties and/or poor food environments on diet quality and obesity risk. Providing financial or nutritional supports along with efforts to promote healthy food environment may reduce disparities in diet quality and obesity. Special support should be provided to food insecure older adults with poor food environment, those at the greatest risk of poor diet quality and obesity.

Author(s):  
L. McKeever ◽  
I.C. Farrar ◽  
S. Sulo ◽  
J. Partridge ◽  
P. Sheean ◽  
...  

Background: Older adults (65 years and older) comprise a high-risk group that are susceptible to the development of malnutrition. Dietary intake and diet quality represent key modifiable risk factors to help prevent and to treat declines in nutrition status, with oral nutritional supplements (ONS) often being a cost-effective therapy for many to increase protein and caloric intake. The DETERMINE Checklist offers a series of questions capable of mapping the initial landscape of contextual factors that influence the dietary patterns of the at-risk populations. Objectives: To examine independent predictors of inadequate dietary intake and poor diet quality amongst a multi-ethnic sample of urban community-dwelling older adults in an effort to identify target groups of participants that could benefit most from an ONS intervention. Design: Cross-sectional. Participants: Chicago, Illinois, United States urban residents greater than 55 years of age who self-reported to be non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic. Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted to obtain basic demographic information. The DETERMINE Checklist was administered to (1) characterize participants’ nutritional risk, and (2) identify participants with inadequate intake and/or poor diet quality. Predictors of inadequate intake, defined as any participant who reported either to eat less than two meals per day and/or poor diet quality, defined as any participant who reported to eat few fruits, vegetables or dairy were used to identify groups of participants who could benefit most from ONS consumption. Mantel-Hanzel chi square, Breslow-day tests, and logistic regressions were conducted. Results: 1001 ethnically diverse participants were interviewed (37% non-Hispanic White, 37% non-Hispanic Black, and 26% Hispanic). Respondents were predominantly female (69%) with a mean age of 66.9 (± 6.4) years. The majority were found to be at either moderate or high nutrition risk (78.7%). Domains of the DETERMINE Checklist that predicted either inadequate dietary intake or poor diet quality included social isolation, lower levels of educational attainment, food insecurity, limitations in activities of daily living (ADL), polypharmacy, or three or more alcoholic drinks per day. Of the participants who met the criteria as those who would benefit from ONS, less than 50% had reported consuming ONS in the past six months. Conclusion: Older community-dwelling adults living in an urban setting, especially those with social isolation, lower levels of education, food insecurity, limitations with ADLs, polypharmacy, and those reporting heavy alcohol intake represent a population who could benefit from consuming ONS. Efforts should be made towards further understanding these contextual factors and providing nutrition education along with an ONS intervention that could be beneficial to supplement dietary inadequacies in this population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abrania Marrero-Hernandez ◽  
Martha Tamez ◽  
Josiemer Mattei

Abstract Objectives Adults in Puerto Rico have a high prevalence of poor diet quality, behavior that, in other United States territories, has previously been associated with increased access to imported food products. These trends raise the question of whether consumption of local food, which accounts for only 15% of the Puerto Rican food environment, may contribute to healthy dietary intake. We aimed to investigate the association between purposefully purchasing local foods (PPLF) and diet quality in Puerto Rico. Methods The Puerto Rico Assessment of Diet, Lifestyle, and Diseases (PRADLAD) is a 2015 cross-sectional study of 380 adults (35–75y) sampled in San Juan. To assess PPLF, participants were asked, ‘How often do you purposely purchase foods from Puerto Rico (like fruits, vegetables, meat and other products that are produced here rather than being imported)? ’ Diet was assessed through a culturally-adapted food frequency questionnaire, and diet quality was defined using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI). Statistical analysis was conducted among participants with valid dietary data (n = 248). Multivariable generalized linear models tested the association between PPLF and AHEI, adjusted for relevant sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Results Nearly a third (33.9%) of participants reported never/sometimes, 33.5% reported often, and 30.6% reported always PPLF. As compared to never/sometimes PPLF, fully-adjusted mean AHEI scores were 3.56 (P = 0.0383) points higher among those often PPLF and 9.34 (P < 0.0001) points higher among those always PPLF. Compared to never/sometimes PPLF, those who always PPLF had higher fully-adjusted mean component scores for vegetables (P < 0.0001), fruits (P = 0.0002), whole grain (P = 0.0391), nuts and legumes (P = 0.034), trans fat (P = 0.0003), and long-chain (Ω-3) fats (P = 0.002). Conclusions Adults in Puerto Rico who intentionally purchase local products had significantly higher diet quality, especially regarding plant-based foods and healthy fats intake. These findings point to possible dietary benefits associated with improving local food availability. Further research on the Puerto Rican food environment is needed, including potential poor diet quality associated with imported products. Funding Sources Private anonymous donations, Dry Bean Health Research Program Incentive Award, and institutional funds. Supporting Tables, Images and/or Graphs


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yeon Jin Choi ◽  
Eileen M Crimmins ◽  
Jung Ki Kim ◽  
Jennifer A Ailshire

Abstract Objective: A suboptimal diet and nutritional deficiencies can have important influences on health with significant impact among older adults. This study aims to assess the presence of suboptimal dietary intake among older Americans and identify risk and protective factors influencing diet quality. Design: Cross-sectional secondary analysis. Setting: USA. Participants: A nationally representative sample of 5614 community-dwelling older adults over age 54 in the Health and Retirement Study – Health Care and Nutrition Survey. Results: Overall, only 10·7 % of respondents had a good quality diet (Healthy Eating Index score 81 and above); the majority had diets considered poor or needing improvement. Less than 50 % of respondents met dietary guidelines and nutritional goals for most individual food groups and nutrients. Respondents with low socio-economic status, fewer psychosocial resources and those who had limited access to healthy food outlets were more likely to have a diet of suboptimal quality. Conclusions: Efforts to remove identified barriers that put older adults at risk for poor nutrition and to provide resources that increase access to healthy food should be made to encourage healthy eating and enhance diet quality.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna C. Russell ◽  
Victoria M. Flood ◽  
Heather Yeatman ◽  
Jie Jin Wang ◽  
Paul Mitchell

Author(s):  
Apeera Prak Chang ◽  
Asma’ Ali

Food insecurity is interrelated with low food supply consumption which have high disposition to poor diet quality. However, less study has been done in assessing the relationship between food insecurity and diet quality of children in Malaysia. Therefore, this study objectives are to determine food insecurity level and diet quality of children from B40 families in Kedah. This cross-sectional study was carried out among 106 children aged 7 – 12 years old from one selected district in Pendang, Kedah. Radimer/Cornell Hunger was used to determine food insecurity level of the children, while diet quality of the children was assessed by applying modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2005. Based on the result, 43.4% of the household were categorized as food secure while 56.6% were food insecure. Those food insecure were classified into three levels and the study found that 61.0% were household food insecure, 28.0% were individual food insecure and 11.0% of the household were child hunger. About 28.3% of them had poor diet quality, 69.8% of them had diet that needs improvements and only 1.9% of them had good diet quality. However, there was no significant relationship found between food insecurity and diet quality of these children (p = 0.436). This is somehow indicated that food insecurity does not reflect the diet quality of children from the B40 families in this study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 1379-1379
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bishop ◽  
Sarah Ullevig ◽  
Krystle Zuniga ◽  
Kaipeng Wang

Abstract Objectives The emergence of food insecurity as a primary nutrition-related health issue among older adults suggests a need to examine how nutritional assistance programs are related to food insecurity and dietary quality in aging populations. This project examines food insecurity and dietary quality in US adults age 65 and older and the impact of nutrition assistance programs. Methods The sample was drawn from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study and 2013 Health Care and Nutrition Study and included 3779 respondents representing a population of 37,217,566 adults aged 65 and older. Food insecurity was a binary measure based on the USDA six-item US Adult Food Security Survey Module. Two forms of nutritional assistance included receipt of supplemental food from sources such as food banks and Meals-on-Wheels (1 = yes, 0 = no) and reported receipt of SNAP benefits (1 = yes, 0 = no). Dietary quality was measured using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 based on a food frequency questionnaire. General linear modeling adjusting for covariates and complex sampling design was used to test if nutritional assistance moderated the association between food insecurity and AHEI-2010. Results Around 10% of the sample was food insecure, 14% reported receipt of supplemental food, and 6.4% were SNAP benefit recipients. In covariate-adjusted models, food insecurity and receipt of SNAP benefits were not associated with AHEI-2010, but receipt of supplemental food was (b = −1.39, SE = 0.67, P = 0.038). Receipt of supplemental food moderated the association between AHEI-2010 and food insecurity (P = 0.001). Simple effect estimates suggested that among those not receiving supplemental food, the food insecure had lower AHEI-2010 scores than the food secure (b = −2.15, SE = 0.88, P = 0.014). Among those receiving supplemental food, the food insecure had greater AHEI-2010 scores than the food secure (b = 2.62, SE = 1.25, P = 0.035) and similar AHEI-2010 scores as the food secure not receiving supplemental food. Conclusions Preliminary analysis suggests that receipt of supplemental food appears to be associated with better dietary quality among food-insecure older adults and confirms the importance of food assistance programs in combating the negative effect of food insecurity on dietary quality. Funding Sources This work is supported by the Texas State University Research Enhancement Program.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. P806-P806
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Parrott ◽  
Alexandra J. Fiocco ◽  
Pierre-Hugues Carmichael ◽  
Nicole D. Anderson ◽  
Danielle Laurin ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 555-555
Author(s):  
Song-Yi Park ◽  
Yurii Shvetsov ◽  
Minji Kang ◽  
V Wendy Setiawan ◽  
Carol Boushey ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives We examined the association of postdiagnostic diet quality with all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in older adults diagnosed with invasive cancer, in comparison with those without invasive cancer, in the Multiethnic Cohort. Methods Data were from 66,374 African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino, and White men and women, who had no prevalent cancer, heart disease, or stroke at baseline (1993–1996, 45–75 years) and completed a quantitative food frequency questionnaire at both baseline and 10-year follow-up (2003–2007). Overall diet quality was measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, the Alternative HEI-2010 (AHEI-2010), the alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMED), and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) scores. Invasive cancer cases between the baseline and 10-year surveys and deaths after the 10 year survey were identified through linkage to cancer registries and to state death files and the National Death Index. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated in multivariate Cox models for the dietary indexes at 10-year follow-up with subsequent mortality. Results Age-adjusted mean scores of the 4 dietary indexes at baseline (prediagnosis) and 10-year follow-up (postdiagnosis) were similar or slightly lower in participants with cancer (n = 5998), compared to those without cancer (n = 60,376). Among participants with cancer (71.5 ± 8.0 years), 2006 all-cause and 1005 cancer-specific deaths were identified during a mean follow-up of 8 years after the 10-year survey. Postdiagnostic scores from all 4 indexes were associated with lower risk of all-cause and cancer mortality: for the highest vs. lowest quartiles, HR (95% CI) for all-cause mortality was 0.72 (0.62–0.82) for HEI-2015, 0.84 (0.73–0.96) for AHEI-2010, 0.74 (0.63–0.86) for aMED, and 0.76 (0.66–0.87) for DASH. The corresponding HRs (95% CIs) for cancer mortality were 0.81 (0.66–0.99), 0.81 (0.66–0.99), 0.72 (0.58–0.89), and 0.79 (0.65–0.97). These HRs were similar to those for participants without cancer. Conclusions Postdiagnostic high-quality diet was related to lower all-cause and cancer mortality in older adults with invasive cancer, with risk reduction comparable to that among participants without cancer. Funding Sources National Cancer Institute.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Carbonneau ◽  
Benoît Lamarche ◽  
Julie Robitaille ◽  
Véronique Provencher ◽  
Sophie Desroches ◽  
...  

The objectives were to assess whether social support for healthy eating and perceived food environment are associated with diet quality, and to investigate if sociodemographic characteristics moderate these associations. A probability sample of French-speaking adults from the Province of Québec, Canada, was recruited in the context of the PREDISE study. Participants reported their perceptions of supportive and non-supportive actions related to healthy eating from close others at home and outside of home (n = 952), and of the accessibility to healthy foods (n = 1035). The Canadian Healthy Eating Index (C-HEI) was calculated based on three Web-based 24 h food recalls. Multiple linear regression models showed that supportive (B = 1.50 (95% CI 0.46, 2.54)) and non-supportive (B = −3.06 (95% CI −4.94, −1.18)) actions related to healthy eating from close others at home were positively and negatively associated with C-HEI, respectively, whereas actions from close others outside of home were not. The negative association between non-supportive actions occurring at home and C-HEI was stronger among participants with lower (vs. higher) levels of education (p interaction = 0.03). Perceived accessibility to healthy foods was not associated with C-HEI (p > 0.05). These results suggest that the social environment may have a stronger influence on healthy eating than the perceived physical environment. This adds support for healthy eating promotion programs involving entire families, especially for more socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, whose efforts to eat healthily may be more easily thwarted by non-supportive households.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria F Montoya ◽  
Andre W Hite ◽  
Patricia Rohrbeck ◽  
Binky Bawa ◽  
Oladayo O Akinwolemiwa ◽  
...  

We explore the association between quality of diet and food security status among older persons. Cross-sectional survey of large national samples, from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988-1994 & 2001-2002), in the United States. A total of 5,039 and 2,040 men and women aged 60 and older, respectively. The dependent variable was the healthy eating index (HEI; 2000 and 2005) as a measure of diet quality. The independent variable of interest was food security status and was categorized as food secure, food insecurity receiving food stamps and food insecurity not receiving food stamps. In multivariate analyses, food insecure individuals not receiving food stamps had lower total HEI-2000 scores compared to food secure individuals (b=-3.91, SE=1.81, P=0.0310). Factors independently associated with high HEI (2000 or 2005) scores were female gender, being married, highly educated or wealthy, with very good/ excellent perceived health, or without functional limitations. Food secure individuals had better quality of diet than food insecure individuals. Among food insecure individuals, receiving food stamps was not associated with diet quality. Food insecure families with older individuals may need new methods of dissemination of food and nutrition programs – methods that yield positive and promising changes in the health status of this special population group.


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