- Title
- Increasing food insecurity severity is associated with lower diet quality
- Creator
- Kent, Katherine; Schumacher, Tracy; Kocar, Sebastian; Seivwright, Ami; Visentin, Denis; Collins, Clare E.; Lester, Libby
- Relation
- Public Health Nutrition Vol. 27, Issue 1, no. e61
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980024000417
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Objective: Food insecurity may reduce diet quality but the relationship between food insecurity severity and diet quality is under-researched. This study aimed to examine the relationship between diet quality and severity of household food insecurity. Design: A cross-sectional, online survey used the USDA Household Food Security Six-item Short Form to classify respondents as food secure or marginally, moderately, or severely food insecure. The Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS; scored 0–73) determined diet quality (ARFS total and sub-scale scores). Survey-weighted linear regression (adjusted for age, sex, income, education, location, household composition) was conducted. Setting: Tasmania, Australia Participants: Community dwelling adults (aged 18 years and over) Results: The mean ARFS total for the sample (n=804, 53% female, 29% aged >65 years) was 32.4 (SD=9.8). As the severity of household food insecurity increased, ARFS total decreased. Marginally food insecure respondents reported a mean ARFS score three points lower than food-secure adults (B=-2.7; 95%CI [-5.11, -0.34]; p=0.03), and reduced by six points for moderately (B=-5.6; 95%CI [-7.26, -3.90]; p<0.001) and twelve points for severely food insecure respondents (B=-11.5; 95%CI [-13.21, -9.78]; p<0.001). Marginally food insecure respondents had significantly lower vegetable sub-scale scores, moderately food insecure respondents had significantly lower sub-scale scores for all food groups except dairy, severely food insecure respondents had significantly lower scores for all sub-scale scores. Conclusions: Poorer diet quality is evident in marginally, moderately, and severely food insecure adults. Interventions to reduce food insecurity and increase diet quality are required to prevent poorer nutrition-related health outcomes in food-insecure populations in Australia.
- Subject
- food security; food insecurity; diet quality; dietary intake; Australia; SDG 2; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1499917
- Identifier
- uon:54809
- Identifier
- ISSN:1368-9800
- Rights
- x
- Language
- eng
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