Food insecurity among university students, professional and academic staff at the University of Tasmania

Kent, Katherine; Visentin, D.; Murray, S.

doi:10.1017/s0029665123000642

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…The current findings that variety in dietary intake differs across food groups and across levels of food insecurity suggest that food relief (and therefore recipients of food relief) could benefit from provision of food with a greater focus on a variety of nutritious foods and particularly greater quantities of items from core food groups. However, as there are long-standing questions about the effectiveness of the food relief system in Australia, and few of our respondents reported accessing emergency food relief (53) , the relationship between severity of food insecurity and diet quality reflects a need for further research, evaluation and efforts to develop more sustainable, equitable and nutritious food systems (54) . That even the food-secure respondents in the current study were unable to meet dietary quality targets reflecting intakes that align with recommendations in the Australian Dietary Guidelines suggests that there is a substantial role for public health initiatives focused on nutrition education and policy actions to incentivise healthy eating choices (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Increasing food insecurity severity is associated with lower diet quality

Kent,

Schumacher,

Kocar

et al. 2024

Public Health Nutr.

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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 United States Department of Agriculture 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 and 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 and 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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%