Household Food Insecurity and Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in Rural Nicaragua
Date
2022-01
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Abstract
Forty-one percent of Latin Americans are currently experiencing food insecurity and the rate of food insecurity in the region is increasing faster than any other region of the world. This is concerning as food insecurity has been found to be a risk factor for a number of deleterious health outcomes in a variety of settings. Despite this, the association between food insecurity and health has rarely been studied in Latin America and almost never in rural regions of Latin America. Given the growing frequency of food insecurity in Latin America, it is imperative to gain a better understanding of the relationship between food insecurity and health outcomes. This research is designed to address this knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between household food insecurity (HFI) and maternal mental (MMH) and physical health (MPH) and child physical health (CPH). Specifically, this study is designed to evaluate the hypothesis that HFI is negatively associated with MMH, MPH, and CPH. In this study, HFI is measured using the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale, MMH is measured using the Self-Reporting-Questionnaire-20, and MPH and CPH are measured broadly via an allostatic load index which incorporates various physiological biomarkers. Regression analysis is used to determine the association between HFI and MMH, MPH, and CPH. The analysis finds that worse food insecurity is associated with worse MMH; 33% of variation in MMH is explained by food insecurity (p < 0.001). This may be explained by the scarcity mindset and the ethnographic findings that motherhood is viewed as central to the identity of mothers in Los Robles. Conversely, HFI was not associated with MPH or CPH. This may be explained by the biomarkers used in the AL indices and that HFI measures an individual’s perception of the food they are eating and not nutritional intake. This study begins to fill the gap in our understanding of the relationship between HFI and physical and mental health in rural Latin America and suggests that addressing HFI may have multiple downstream health benefits.
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Keywords
Household Food Insecurity, Maternal and Child Health, Allostatic Load, LMIC, Latin America, Common Mental Disorders
Citation
Knaub, M. (2022). Household food insecurity and maternal and child health outcomes in rural Nicaragua (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.