IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i7p1424-d156602.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Insecurity and Mental Health among Females in High-Income Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Merryn Maynard

    (Meal Exchange Canada, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8, Canada)

  • Lesley Andrade

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Sara Packull-McCormick

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Christopher M. Perlman

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Cesar Leos-Toro

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Sharon I. Kirkpatrick

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

Abstract

Food insecurity is a persistent concern in high-income countries, and has been associated with poor mental health, particularly among females. We conducted a scoping review to characterize the state of the evidence on food insecurity and mental health among women in high-income countries. The research databases PubMed, EMBASE, and psycINFO were searched using keywords capturing food insecurity, mental health, and women. Thirty-nine articles (representing 31 unique studies/surveys) were identified. Three-quarters of the articles drew upon data from a version of the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module. A range of mental health measures were used, most commonly to measure depression and depressive symptoms, but also anxiety and stress. Most research was cross-sectional and showed associations between depression and food insecurity; longitudinal analyses suggested bidirectional relationships (with food insecurity increasing the risk of depressive symptoms or diagnosis, or depression predicting food insecurity). Several articles focused on vulnerable subgroups, such as pregnant women and mothers, women at risk of homelessness, refugees, and those who had been exposed to violence or substance abuse. Overall, this review supports a link between food insecurity and mental health (and other factors, such as housing circumstances and exposure to violence) among women in high-income countries and underscores the need for comprehensive policies and programs that recognize complex links among public health challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Merryn Maynard & Lesley Andrade & Sara Packull-McCormick & Christopher M. Perlman & Cesar Leos-Toro & Sharon I. Kirkpatrick, 2018. "Food Insecurity and Mental Health among Females in High-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-36, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:7:p:1424-:d:156602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1424/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1424/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2017. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2016," Economic Research Report 291968, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Gregory, Christian A. & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, 2017. "Food Insecurity, Chronic Disease, and Health Among Working-Age Adults," Economic Research Report 261813, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2018. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2017," Economic Research Report 291966, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A. & Singh, Anita, 2017. "Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2016," Administrative Publications 292099, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haobin Fan & Xuanyi Nie & Sarah Wilson, 2023. "Mental Health, Material Possessions, and Social Capital During COVID-19: A Study of the United States Urban Working-Age Population," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 561-599, February.
    2. Flora Douglas & Fiona MacKenzie & Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Ada L. Garcia & Lynda McKenzie & Anne Ludbrook & Elizabeth Dowler, 2018. "“ A Lot of People Are Struggling Privately. They Don’t Know Where to Go or They’re Not Sure of What to Do ”: Frontline Service Provider Perspectives of the Nature of Household Food Insecurity in Scotl," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Christina Mary Pollard & Sue Booth, 2019. "Addressing Food and Nutrition Security in Developed Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-5, July.
    4. Lauren A. Clay & Ashley D. Ross, 2020. "Factors Associated with Food Insecurity Following Hurricane Harvey in Texas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Pedro G. Guzman & James E. Lange & Amanda C. McClain, 2022. "The Association between Food Security Status and Psychological Distress and Loneliness among Full-Time Undergraduate Students at a Minority-Serving Institution," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Thalia M. Sparling & Megan Deeney & Bryan Cheng & Xuerui Han & Chiara Lier & Zhuozhi Lin & Claudia Offner & Marianne V. Santoso & Erin Pfeiffer & Jillian A. Emerson & Florence Mariamu Amadi & Khadija , 2022. "Systematic evidence and gap map of research linking food security and nutrition to mental health," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Jeromey B. Temple, 2018. "The Association between Stressful Events and Food Insecurity: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, October.
    8. Ivory H. Loh & Vanessa M. Oddo & Jennifer Otten, 2020. "Food Insecurity Is Associated with Depression among a Vulnerable Workforce: Early Care and Education Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Santos, Mateus Rennó & Testa, Alexander & Weiss, Douglas B. & Jackson, Dylan B., 2022. "County jail incarceration rates and food hardship in the United States," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    10. Elena Carrillo-Álvarez & Blanca Salinas-Roca & Lluís Costa-Tutusaus & Raimon Milà-Villarroel & Nithya Shankar Krishnan, 2021. "The Measurement of Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-57, September.
    11. Christina M Pollard & Sue Booth, 2019. "Food Insecurity and Hunger in Rich Countries—It Is Time for Action against Inequality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-13, May.
    12. Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Lynda Mckenzie & Elizabeth Dowler & Ada L Garcia & Anne Ludbrook & Karen Louise Barton & Wendy Louise Wrieden & Flora Douglas, 2018. "What can Secondary Data Tell Us about Household Food Insecurity in a High-Income Country Context?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Keumseok Koh & Michelle L. Kaiser & Glennon Sweeney & Karima Samadi & Ayaz Hyder, 2020. "Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-15, July.
    14. Amber Bastian & Courtney Parks & Fiona H. McKay & Paige van der Pligt & Amy Yaroch & Sarah A. McNaughton & Rebecca Lindberg, 2022. "Development of a Comprehensive Household Food Security Tool for Families with Young Children and/or Pregnant Women in High Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-17, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suttles, Shellye & Babb, Angela & Knudsen, Daniel C., 2024. "Submitted and Denied: Understanding variation in case status across Supplemental Nutrition assistance program (SNAP) applications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    2. Sunjin Ahn & Travis A. Smith & F. Bailey Norwood, 2020. "Can Internet Surveys Mimic Food Insecurity Rates Published by the US Government?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 187-204, June.
    3. Aksoy, Billur & Palma, Marco A., 2019. "The effects of scarcity on cheating and in-group favoritism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 100-117.
    4. Masataka Umeda & Sarah L. Ullevig & Eunhee Chung & Youngdeok Kim & Tanya J. Escobedo & Christopher J. Zeitz, 2020. "Depression Mediates the Relationship between Food Insecurity and Pain Interference in College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Lesly Cassin & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi & Fabien Prieur, 2021. "The impact of income inequality on public environmental expenditure with green consumerism," Working Papers 2021.08, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    6. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P & Gregory, Christian A & Singh, Anita, 2021. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2020," Economic Research Report 327186, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P & Gregory, Christian A & Singh, Anita, 2020. "Household Food Security in the United States in 2019," Economic Research Report 327207, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Diansheng Dong & Yuqing Zheng & Hayden Stewart, 2020. "The effects of food sales taxes on household food spending: An application of a censored cluster model," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(5), pages 669-684, September.
    9. Musa, Anne O. & Carpio, Carlos E. & Williams, Ryan Blake, 2020. "Bounding the Effect of Joint Participation in SNAP and Private Food Charities on Food Security," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304614, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Elena Carrillo-Álvarez & Blanca Salinas-Roca & Lluís Costa-Tutusaus & Raimon Milà-Villarroel & Nithya Shankar Krishnan, 2021. "The Measurement of Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-57, September.
    11. repec:aud:audfin:v:21:y:2019:i:51:p:377 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Keumseok Koh & Michelle L. Kaiser & Glennon Sweeney & Karima Samadi & Ayaz Hyder, 2020. "Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-15, July.
    13. Amber Bastian & Courtney Parks & Fiona H. McKay & Paige van der Pligt & Amy Yaroch & Sarah A. McNaughton & Rebecca Lindberg, 2022. "Development of a Comprehensive Household Food Security Tool for Families with Young Children and/or Pregnant Women in High Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Möhring, Anke & Mann, Stefan, 2020. "Causes and impacts of the mis-representation of agricultural policy—The case of food supply security payments in Switzerland," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 466-482.
    15. Otto Lenhart, 2023. "The earned income tax credit and food insecurity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1543-1570, October.
    16. Megan Henly & Debra L. Brucker & Alisha Coleman‐Jensen, 2023. "Food insecurity among those with disability: Cross‐survey comparison of estimates and implications for future research," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 1672-1692, September.
    17. Hanna Dudek, 2019. "Households’ Food Insecurity in the V4 Countries: Microeconometric Analysis," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 21(51), pages 377-377.
    18. Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Gregory, Christian A., 2017. "Examining an "Experimental" Food Security Status Classification Method for Households with Children," Technical Bulletins 264418, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Yingru Li & Dapeng Li & Christian King, 2022. "Food Insufficiency among Job-Loss Households during the Pandemic: The Role of Food Assistance Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    20. Joana Sampaio & Ana Henriques & Elisabete Ramos & Isabel Dias & Alexandra Lopes & Sílvia Fraga, 2022. "Influence of Social Adversity on Perceived Health Status and Depressive Symptoms among Portuguese Older People," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-12, May.
    21. Lesly Cassin & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi & Fabien Prieur, 2021. "Voting for environmental policy with green consumers: the impact of income inequality," CEE-M Working Papers hal-03146526, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:7:p:1424-:d:156602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.