An examination of food insecurity among economically disadvantaged youths in Taiwan

Background: Adolescence is a critical transition period in the course of human development. Although food insecurity (FI) has been shown to be associated with adverse mental health and sleep outcomes in US adolescents, there is a paucity of research examining the relationships between FI, mental health, and sleep outcomes in Taiwanese adolescents. Furthermore, it is unknown how the change of FI over time (i.e., the trajectory of FI) is related to health outcomes. Methods: The data come from the Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty, which is a national longitudinal project measuring FI in five survey waves (2009–2017). We employed group-based trajectory modeling to classify various FI trends over the five waves using STATA. Furthermore, a generalized estimating equation analysis was conducted with FI trajectories as the independent variable to see how FI trajectory is related to mental health and sleep outcomes. Results: In total, 1921 participants aged 12–18 years in the first wave were deemed valid for the analysis. We classified the participants into four FI trajectory groups: persistently low FI (24.8%), persistently moderate FI (64.7%), declining from high to low FI (4.1%), and food-secure groups (6.4%). As compared to food-secure adolescents, the persistently moderate FI group was more likely to have mental problems (β = 0.30, [95% confidence interval 0.21–0.38]), while the other FI groups were only marginally associated with mental health problems. Moreover, adolescents in the persistently low FI group (β = 0.13, [0.02–0.23]) and persistently moderate FI group (β = 0.39, [0.29–0.48]) were found to have more sleep problems than those in the food-secure group. Conclusions: Our study describes the FI profile of adolescents from economically disadvantaged families and the difficulties they might encounter. With this information, healthcare providers can aid adolescents in the early stages of mental health problems and provide guidance when appropriate.

Download Full-text

An examination of food insecurity among economically disadvantaged youths in Taiwan

Journal of Asian Public Policy ◽

10.1080/17516234.2016.1195561 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 183-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kate Yeong-Tsyr Wang ◽

Li-Ching Lyu

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Economically Disadvantaged

Download Full-text

Perceived Food Insecurity, Dietary Quality, and Unfavorable Food Intake among Children and Adolescents from Economically Disadvantaged Households

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13103411 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 3411

Author(s):

Chiu-Wen Yeh ◽

Yuan-Ting C. Lo ◽

Yi-Chieh Chen ◽

Wei-Chih Chen ◽

Yi-Chen Huang

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Intake ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Economically Disadvantaged ◽

Dietary Diversity ◽

Dietary Quality ◽

Sugar Sweetened Beverages ◽

Sweetened Beverages ◽

Validated Questionnaire

Few studies have investigated food security, dietary quality, or unfavorable food intake through self-reports among children and adolescents in Asia. This study assessed the association of perceived food insecurity with dietary quality and unfavorable food intake among 1111 children and 538 adolescents from economically disadvantaged families in Taiwan. Food security status was collected by a validated questionnaire. Dietary quality was examined using a dietary diversity score (DDS). Unfavorable food intake was defined as fried food, bread/cake/pastries, sugar-sweetened beverages, and biscuits/chips. Food-insecure participants had lower DDS, whole grains and protein-rich food intake than food-secure participants. Furthermore, food-insecure children had a higher frequency of unfavorable food consumption. The level of children’s food insecurity was inversely associated with DDS (β: −0.047, 95% CI: −0.085 to −0.009) but positively with bread/pastry (β: 0.103, 95% CI: 0.022–0.184) and sugar-sweetened beverages (β: 0.117, 95% CI: 0.018–0.215) intake. Adolescents who reported food insecurity and not enough money for household expenses had an odds ratio of 2.85 (95% CI: 1.15–7.10) for poor DDS relative to their food-secure and financially able counterparts. We recommended that health policy needs to include diversifying food and nutrition education for vulnerable children and adolescents to improve dietary quality.

Download Full-text