IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i3p319-d200459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Household Food Insecurity Narrows the Sex Gap in Five Adverse Mental Health Outcomes among Canadian Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Geneviève Jessiman-Perreault

    (Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada)

  • Lynn McIntyre

    (Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada)

Abstract

The sex gap (i.e., the significant difference in an outcome between men and women) in the occurrence of a variety of mental health conditions has been well documented. Household food insecurity has also repeatedly been found to be associated with a variety of poor mental health outcomes. Although both sex and household food insecurity have received attention individually, rarely have they been examined together to explore whether or how these indicators of two social locations interact to impact common mental health outcomes. Using a pooled sample (N = 302,683) of the Canadian Community Health Survey (2005–2012), we test whether sex modifies the relationship between household food insecurity assessed by the Household Food Security Survey Module and five adverse mental health outcomes, controlling for confounding covariates. Although the sex gap was observed among food secure men versus women, males and females reporting any level of food insecurity were equally likely to report adverse mental health outcomes, compared with those reporting food security. Therefore, household food insecurity seems to narrow the sex gap on five adverse mental health outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Geneviève Jessiman-Perreault & Lynn McIntyre, 2019. "Household Food Insecurity Narrows the Sex Gap in Five Adverse Mental Health Outcomes among Canadian Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-15, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:3:p:319-:d:200459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/319/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/3/319/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger L Scott & Gerri Lasiuk & Colleen Norris, 2016. "The relationship between sexual orientation and depression in a national population sample," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(23-24), pages 3522-3532, December.
    2. Hamelin, Anne-Marie & Beaudry, Micheline & Habicht, Jean-Pierre, 2002. "Characterization of household food insecurity in Québec: food and feelings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 119-132, January.
    3. Wehler, C. & Weinreb, L.F. & Huntington, N. & Scott, R. & Hosmer, D. & Fletcher, K. & Goldberg, R. & Gundersen, C., 2004. "Risk and Protective Factors for Adult and Child Hunger among Low-Income Housed and Homeless Female-Headed Families," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(1), pages 109-115.
    4. repec:mpr:mprres:5077 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Christina Mary Pollard & Sue Booth, 2019. "Addressing Food and Nutrition Security in Developed Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-5, July.
    2. 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.

    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. Barrett Lee & Adam Lippert, 2021. "Food insecurity among homeless and precariously housed children in the United States: Lessons from the past," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(37), pages 1115-1148.
    2. Craig Gundersen & Brent Kreider, 2008. "Food Stamps and Food Insecurity: What Can Be Learned in the Presence of Nonclassical Measurement Error?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(2), pages 352-382.
    3. Katharine M. Broton & Kari E. Weaver & Minhtuyen Mai, 2018. "Hunger in Higher Education: Experiences and Correlates of Food Insecurity among Wisconsin Undergraduates from Low-Income Families," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-25, September.
    4. Matteo Vittuari & Fabio De Menna & Silvia Gaiani & Luca Falasconi & Alessandro Politano & Jana Dietershagen & Andrea Segrè, 2017. "The Second Life of Food: An Assessment of the Social Impact of Food Redistribution Activities in Emilia Romagna, Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Valerie Tarasuk & Joan Eakin, 2005. "Food assistance through “surplus” food: Insights from an ethnographic study of food bank work," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(2), pages 177-186, June.
    6. Máximo Rossi & Zuleika Ferre & María Rosa Curutchet & Ana Giménez & Gastón Ares, 2016. "Influence of socio-demographic characteristics on different dimensions of household food insecurity in Montevideo, Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0516, Department of Economics - dECON.
    7. Whittle, Henry J. & Palar, Kartika & Hufstedler, Lee Lemus & Seligman, Hilary K. & Frongillo, Edward A. & Weiser, Sheri D., 2015. "Food insecurity, chronic illness, and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area: An example of structural violence in United States public policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 154-161.
    8. Leisa McCarthy & Anne B. Chang & Julie Brimblecombe, 2018. "Food Security Experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families with Young Children in An Urban Setting: Influencing Factors and Coping Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, November.
    9. Hadley, Craig & Stevenson, Edward Geoffrey Jedediah & Tadesse, Yemesrach & Belachew, Tefera, 2012. "Rapidly rising food prices and the experience of food insecurity in urban Ethiopia: Impacts on health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2412-2419.
    10. Federico Roncarolo & Sherri Bisset & Louise Potvin, 2016. "Short-Term Effects of Traditional and Alternative Community Interventions to Address Food Insecurity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Nanama, Siméon & Frongillo, Edward A., 2012. "Altered social cohesion and adverse psychological experiences with chronic food insecurity in the non-market economy and complex households of Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 444-451.
    12. Helms, Veronica E & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha & Gray, Regina & Brucker, Debra L, 2020. "Household Food Insecurity and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal Housing Assistance," Economic Research Report 327205, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    13. Rachael D. Dombrowski & Bree Bode & Kathryn A. G. Knoff & James Mallare & E. Whitney G. Moore & Noel Kulik, 2021. "Nutrition Supports Deconstructed and Disrupted: An Evaluation of a Multilevel School-Based Intervention during the Time of COVID," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Gundersen, Craig & Kreider, Brent, 2009. "Bounding the effects of food insecurity on children's health outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 971-983, September.
    15. Wutich, Amber & Ragsdale, Kathleen, 2008. "Water insecurity and emotional distress: Coping with supply, access, and seasonal variability of water in a Bolivian squatter settlement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2116-2125, December.
    16. Gibb, James K. & Williams, Sarah & Mikelsteins, Kaspars & Charles, Jada & McKinnon, Leela & Beach, Laura & McKerracher, Luseadra & Fields, Jessica, 2024. "Queering food security research: A critical analysis of 2SLGBTQ+ People's experiences of food insecurity in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 345(C).
    17. Carter, Kristie N. & Kruse, Kerri & Blakely, Tony & Collings, Sunny, 2011. "The association of food security with psychological distress in New Zealand and any gender differences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(9), pages 1463-1471, May.
    18. Tsai, Alexander C. & Tomlinson, Mark & Comulada, W. Scott & Rotheram-Borus, Mary Jane, 2016. "Food insufficiency, depression, and the modifying role of social support: Evidence from a population-based, prospective cohort of pregnant women in peri-urban South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 69-77.
    19. Daniel Millimet & Manan Roy, 2015. "Partial identification of the long-run causal effect of food security on child health," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 83-141, February.
    20. Sue Kleve & Sue Booth & Zoe E. Davidson & Claire Palermo, 2018. "Walking the Food Security Tightrope—Exploring the Experiences of Low-to-Middle Income Melbourne Households," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, October.

    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:16:y:2019:i:3:p:319-:d:200459. 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.