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. 2012 Mar;102(3):520-6.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300390. Epub 2012 Jan 19.

Feeding a family in a recession: food insecurity among Minnesota parents

Meg Bruening  1 , Richard MacLehose, Katie Loth, Mary Story, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer
Affiliations

Feeding a family in a recession: food insecurity among Minnesota parents

Meg Bruening et al. Am J Public Health. 2012 Mar.

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed current levels of food insecurity among a large, diverse sample of parents and examined associations between food insecurity and parental weight status, eating patterns, and the home food environment.

Methods: Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity Among Teens) examined the home food environments of adolescents. Parents and caregivers (n = 2095) living with adolescents from the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota school districts completed mailed surveys during a 12-month period in 2009-2010. We performed our assessments using multivariate regressions.

Results: Almost 39% of the parents and caregivers experienced household food insecurity, whereas 13% experienced very low food security. Food insecurity was significantly associated with poorer nutrition-related variables such as higher rates of parental overweight and obesity, less healthy foods served at meals, and higher rates of binge eating. Food-insecure parents were 2 to 4 times more likely to report barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables.

Conclusions: Food insecurity was highly prevalent. Environmental interventions are needed to protect vulnerable families against food insecurity and to improve access to affordable, healthy foods.

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References

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