scholarly journals Proxy longitudinal indicators of household food insecurity in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Neil Bernard Boyle ◽  
Maddy Power
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Related Disease ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Proxy Indicators ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Insight Into

Background: Rising food bank usage in the UK suggests a growing prevalence of food insecurity. However, a formalised, representative measure of food insecurity was not collected in the UK until 2019, over a decade after the initial proliferation of food bank demand. In the absence of a direct measure of food insecurity, this article identifies and summarises longitudinal proxy indicators of UK food insecurity to gain insight into the growth of insecure access to food in the 21st century. Methods: A rapid evidence synthesis of academic and grey literature (2005–present) identified candidate proxy longitudinal markers of food insecurity. These were assessed to gain insight into the prevalence of, or conditions associated with, food insecurity. Results: Food bank data clearly demonstrates increased food insecurity. However, this data reflects an unrepresentative, fractional proportion of the food insecure population without accounting for mild/moderate insecurity, or those in need not accessing provision. Economic indicators demonstrate that a period of poor overall UK growth since 2005 has disproportionately impacted the poorest households, likely increasing vulnerability and incidence of food insecurity. This vulnerability has been exacerbated by welfare reform for some households. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically intensified vulnerabilities and food insecurity. Diet-related health outcomes suggest a reduction in diet quantity/quality. The causes of diet-related disease are complex and diverse; however, evidence of socio-economic inequalities in their incidence suggests poverty, and by extension, food insecurity, as key determinants. Conclusion: Proxy measures of food insecurity suggest a significant increase since 2005, particularly for severe food insecurity. Proxy measures are inadequate to robustly assess the prevalence of food insecurity in the UK. Failure to collect standardised, representative data at the point at which food bank usage increased significantly impairs attempts to determine the full prevalence of food insecurity, understand the causes, and identify those most at risk.

scholarly journals Impact of Welfare Benefit Sanctioning on Food Insecurity: a Dynamic Cross-Area Study of Food Bank Usage in the UK

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
RACHEL LOOPSTRA ◽  
JASMINE FLEDDERJOHANN ◽  
AARON REEVES ◽  
DAVID STUCKLER
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Welfare Benefit ◽  
Household Food ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractSince 2009, the UK has witnessed marked increases in the rate of sanctions applied to unemployment insurance claimants, as part of a wider agenda of austerity and welfare reform. In 2013, over one million sanctions were applied, stopping benefit payments for a minimum of four weeks and potentially leaving people facing economic hardship and driving them to use food banks. Here we explore whether sanctioning is associated with food bank use by linking data from The Trussell Trust Foodbank Network with records on sanctioning rates across 259 local authorities in the UK. After accounting for local authority differences and time trends, the rate of adults fed by food banks rose by an additional 3.36 adults per 100,000 (95% CI: 1.71 to 5.01) as the rate of sanctioning increased by 10 per 100,000 adults. The availability of food distribution sites affected how tightly sanctioning and food bank usage were associated (p< 0.001); in areas with few distribution sites, rising sanctions led to smaller increases in food bank usage. In conclusion, sanctioning is closely linked with rising food bank usage, but the impact of sanctioning on household food insecurity is not fully reflected in available data.

Competing Discourses of Household Food Insecurity in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsofia Mendly-Zambo ◽  
Dennis Raphael
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Household Food Insecurity ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Feeding Programs ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Access To Food

Household food insecurity (HFI) impacts over 1.7 million households in Canada with adverse effects upon health. As a signatory to numerous international covenants asserting that access to food is a human right, Canadian governments are obliged to reduce HFI, yet Canadian governments have done remarkably little to assure that Canadians are food secure. In the absence of government action, HFI has spawned numerous non-governmental means of managing the problem such as food banks, feeding programs, and community gardens and kitchens. These efforts have depoliticized the problem of HFI, making its solution more difficult. Solving HFI is also complicated by the presence of five competing discourses of HFI in Canada: nutrition and dietetics, charitable food distribution, community development, social determinants of health, and political economy which offer differing causes and means of responding to HFI. We argue that the least considered discourse – the critical materialist political economy discourse – best accounts for the presence of HFI in a liberal welfare state such as Canada and provides the most effective means of responding to its presence.

scholarly journals Interventions to improve therapeutic communications between Black and minority ethnic patients and professionals in psychiatric services: Systematic review

2015 ◽  
Vol 207 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamaldeep S. Bhui ◽  
Rabeea'h W. Aslam ◽  
Andrea Palinski ◽  
Rose McCabe ◽  
Mark R. D. Johnson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Culturally Adapted ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Therapeutic Communications ◽  
Minority Ethnic

BackgroundCommunication may be an influential determinant of inequality of access to, engagement with and benefit from psychiatric services.AimsTo review the evidence on interventions designed to improve therapeutic communications between Black and minority ethnic patients and clinicians who provide care in psychiatric services.MethodSystematic review and evidence synthesis (PROSPERO registration: CRD42011001661). Data sources included the published and the ‘grey’ literature. A survey of experts and a consultation with patients and carers all contributed to the evidence synthesis, interpretation and recommendations.ResultsTwenty-one studies were included in our analysis. The trials showed benefits mainly for depressive symptoms, experiences of care, knowledge, stigma, adherence to prescribed medication, insight and alliance. The effect sizes were smaller for better-quality trials (range ofd0.18–0.75) than for moderate- or lower-quality studies (range ofd0.18–4.3). The review found only two studies offering weak economic evidence.ConclusionsCulturally adapted psychotherapies, and ethnographic and motivational assessment leading to psychotherapies were effective and favoured by patients and carers. Further trials are needed from outside of the UK and USA, as are economic evaluations and studies of routine psychiatric care practices.

scholarly journals Changing probability of experiencing food insecurity by socioeconomic and demographic groups during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Koltai ◽  
Veronica Toffolutti ◽  
Martin McKee ◽  
David Stuckler
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Employment Transitions ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Population Prevalence ◽  
The Uk

Background: Food supply concerns have featured prominently in the UK response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We assess changes in food insecurity in the UK population from April to July 2020. Method: We analyze 11,095 respondents from the April through July waves of the Understanding Society COVID-19 longitudinal study survey linked with Wave 9 of the UK Understanding Society study. Food insecurity was defined as having used a food bank in the last 4 weeks; being hungry but not eating in the last week; or not able to eat healthy and nutritious food in the last week. Unadjusted estimates to examine changes in population prevalence and logistic regression were used to assess the association between employment transitions and food insecurity. Findings: The prevalence of reporting at least one form of food insecurity rose from 7.1% in April to 20.2% by July 2020. Some of the largest increases were among Asian respondents (22.91 percentage points), the self-employed (15.90 percentage points), and 35-44-year-olds (17.08 percentage points). In logistic regression models, those moving from employment to unemployment had higher odds of reporting food insecurity relative to furloughed individuals (OR=2.23; 95% CI: 1.20 to 4.13) and to the persistently employed (OR=2.38; 95% CI: 1.33 to 4.27), adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Furloughed individuals did not differ significantly in their probability of experiencing food insecurity compared to the persistently employed (OR=1.07; 95% CI: 0.83 to 1.37). Interpretation: Food insecurity has increased substantially in the UK. Steps are needed to provide subsidies or food support to vulnerable groups.

Food Bank Usage Is a Poor Indicator of Food Insecurity: Insights from Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Loopstra ◽  
Valerie Tarasuk
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Food Access ◽  
Household Food Insecurity ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Representative Subset ◽  
Poor Indicator ◽  
Regular Measurement

This article reflects on the insights afforded by the regular measurement and monitoring of household food insecurity in Canada juxtaposed against information on food bank usage in the population. We show that the number and characteristics of people using food banks suggest that this population is a non-representative subset of the food insecure population. We also highlight how the number of people using food banks is insensitive to the level of household food insecurity in the population. Who goes to food banks is a function of the nature of food bank operations and the severity of food insecurity. Representative data on household food insecurity should be regularly collected and utilised to make policy recommendations for interventions to address the problem of insecure food access.

scholarly journals Interventions to address household food insecurity in high-income countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Loopstra
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
High Income ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Household Food Insecurity ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Household Food ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Community Kitchens

Household food insecurity is a serious public health concern in high-income countries. Canada and the USA regularly monitor household food insecurity, while in other countries, such as the UK, it has been the rapid rise of food bank usage that has drawn increased attention to this longstanding, but largely overlooked, problem. This review evaluates evidence on interventions intended to reduce household food insecurity in high-income countries. Research on social protection interventions suggests both cash transfers and food subsidies (e.g. the US Supplement Nutrition and Assistance Programme) reduce household food insecurity. In contrast, research on community-level interventions, such as food banks and other food programmes, suggests limited impacts. Although food banks have become a common intervention for food insecurity in high-income countries, evidence suggests their reliance on donations of volunteer time and food make them inevitably limited in the assistance they are able to provide. The stigma people feel using food banks may also make them untenable. Alternatives to, or enhanced, food banks such as community shops or community kitchens, have become common, but evidence also suggests they may be limited in effectiveness if they do not reach people experiencing food insecurity. This review highlights the difficulty of trying to address household food insecurity with community-based food interventions when solutions likely lie upstream in social protection policies.

scholarly journals The Household Food Insecurity Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

JEJAK ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-260
Author(s):  
Muhammad Anwar ◽  
Rus'an Nasrudin
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Rasch Model ◽  
Demand And Supply ◽  
Supply Shocks ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Physical Access ◽  
The Rasch Model

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic creates both the demand and supply shocks problem that may affect the households’ food insecurity.  Among mechanisms, it ranges from the limited physical access to food due to social distancing to the drop in economic access to food due to (partial) lockdown. This study aims to lay out an early warning assessment of the food security situation in Indonesia amidst the Covid-19 outbreak. We use the cartogram analysis which visualize the geographical features throughout the Indonesia archipelago, both in the small and big island setting. The analysis involves the use of both the simple score and latent measurement-based scale of the Rasch model for the food insecurity based on the Susenas data from 2017-2019. The finding reveals that there existed a variation of the household proportion that suffers from severe food insecurity across the Indonesia archipelago. The more eastern the island, the worse the measure is. Papua and Maluku suffer more from such condition compared to the other big islands.  As the government has applied any containment measures, the surge in Covid-19 cases may potentially worsen both the existing households under severe food insecurity and even create new households under such conditions.

scholarly journals Disease and disaster: Navigating food insecurity in a community affected by crises during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Andrew Pyle ◽  
Michelle Eichinger ◽  
Barry Garst ◽  
Catherine Mobley ◽  
Sarah Griffin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Rural County ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Insight Into

This exploratory study examines how a community experiencing food insecurity while navigating multiple crises can be a model to inform resources, processes, and systems supporting communities facing similar circumstances. Data for this study were collected from residents of a community in Oconee County, a rural county in the northwest corner of South Carolina experiencing pervasive food insecurity. The community was severely impacted by the onset of COVID-19 and further devastated by a tornado in mid-April. The area of the county that sustained the greatest damage from the tornado was the Utica Mill Hill community, home to the county’s most vulnerable population. This cascading series of events constituted a crisis-within-a-crisis for the community. In this study, we sought to learn more about community members’ experiences and the effects of the crises on com­munity members’ access to food. We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 residents living in the Utica Mill Hill community. The results provided insight into community members’ experiences of the crises and the nature of community-level response and recovery efforts. We learned about participants’ experiences with food insecurity, new food policy developments, and gained unexpected insight into community members’ experiences with mental health challenges related to the crises.

scholarly journals Food Insecurity Measurement: Stakeholder Comparisons of the EU-SILC and HFSSM Indicators and Considerations Towards the Usefulness of a Headline Indicator

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Beacom ◽  
Sinéad Furey ◽  
Lynsey Hollywood ◽  
Paul Humphreys
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Food Deprivation ◽  
Household Food Security ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Household Food ◽  
The Uk ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Eu

AbstractPrior to the February 2019 announcement that the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) will be used to estimate household food insecurity, there has not been a standardised measurement approach used in the United Kingdom (UK). Measurement has instead been somewhat inconsistent, and various indicators have been included in national and regional surveys. There remains a gap relating to the comparative usefulness of current and past food insecurity measures used in Northern Ireland (NI) (HFSSM; European Union-Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) food deprivation questions), and the potential usefulness of a headline indicator similar to that used to measure fuel poverty. This study presents findings from Northern Ireland (NI) stakeholder interviews (n = 19), which examined their perspectives on food insecurity measures which have previously been or are currently, or could potentially, be used in the UK/NI (HFSSM; EU-SILC food deprivation questions; headline indicator). Interview transcripts were coded using QSR NVivo (v.12) and inductively analysed to identify relevant themes. Stakeholders preferred the HFSSM to the EU-SILC, reasoning that it is more relevant to the food insecurity experience. A headline indicator for food insecurity was considered useful by some; however, there was consensus that it would not fully encapsulate the food insecurity experience, particularly the social exclusion element, and that it would be a complex measure to construct, with a high degree of error. This research endorses the use of the HFSSM to measure food insecurity in the UK, and provides recommendations for consideration of any future modification of the HFSSM or EU-SILC measurement instruments.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document