Food insecurity and brain health in adults: A systematic review

McMichael, Alan; Lee, Jinkook; Minh, Hoàng Văn; Woodside, Jayne V.; McEvoy, Claire T.

doi:10.1080/10408398.2021.1932721

Cited by 20 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Several reviews and large and small studies showed an association between food insecurity and poor mental health, such as depression 9 – 13 , mental morbidity 14 , anxiety 9 , not anxiety 10 , sleep disorder 9 , 10 , poorer subjective well-being 15 , and poorer cognitive function 11 , 16 , 17 . In terms of physical health outcomes, food insecurity has been associated with cardiometabolic risks, such as excess weight 18 , underweight 4 , hypertension 18 , 19 , self-reported hypertension 20 , cardiovascular diseases (angina, coronary heart disease, and heart attack) 19 , dyslipidaemias 18 , diabetes 18 , 21 , 22 , and physical frailty 23 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food insecurity and health outcomes among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in India

Pengpid

Peltzer

2023

Sci Rep

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The study assessed associations between food insecurity and mental, physical, and behavioural health outcomes in India. The study analysed national cross-sectional population-based data (N = 72,262; ≥ 45 years) from in India in 2017–2018. The overall prevalence of food insecurity was 9.7%. Food insecurity was significantly positively associated with poor mental health [low life satisfaction (AOR: 2.75, 95% CI 2.35–3.23), low self-reported health (AOR: 1.61, 95% CI 1.11–1.42), insomnia symptoms (AOR: 1.64, 95% CI 1.45–1.85), depressive symptoms (AOR: 2.21, 95% CI 1.97–2.48), major depressive disorder (AOR: 2.37, 95% CI 2.03–2.77), Alzheimer’s/dementia (AOR: 1.75, 95% CI 1.13–2.69), and poorer cognitive functioning (AOR: 0.68, 95% CI 0.49–0.93)], poor physical health [bone or joint disease (AOR: 1.18, 95% CI 1.04–1.34), angina (AOR: 1.80, 95% CI 1.58–2.06), underweight (AOR: 1.28, 95% CI 1.16–1.40), chronic lung disease (AOR: 1.22, 95% CI 1.03–1.45), and functional disability (AOR: 1.68, 95% CI 1.47–1.92)], and health risk behaviour [tobacco use (AOR: 1.13, 95% CI 1.01–1.25), heavy episodic drinking (AOR: 1.45, 95% CI 1.10–1.91) and physical inactivity (AOR: 1.42, 95% CI 1.21–1.67)]. Furthermore, food insecurity was negatively associated with overweight/obesity (AOR: 0.80, 95% CI 0.73–0.88). Food insecurity was associated with seven poor mental health indicators, five poor physical health conditions, and three health risk behaviours. Programmes and policies that improve food availability may help improve mental and physical health among middle-aged and older adults in India.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food insecurity and health outcomes among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in India

Pengpid

Peltzer

2023

Sci Rep

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“…Previous studies suggested that food insecurity was associated with depression, chronic diseases, cognitive impairment, and sleep disorders [15][16][17][18]. Food insecurity may invoke biological changes that have long-run health consequences or disrupt children's environments [17,19].…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review 21 Theoretical F...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review 21 Theoretical F...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, food insecurity may result in nutritional deficiencies or poor diet quality, impairing one's immune functioning and brain development [17,19]. For instance, people may intake inadequate essential vitamins and high-level of saturated fat and sugar due to food deprivation, triggering neuroinflammatory and damaging memory [17,20]. The impaired neurodevelopmental processes and brain functions may increase the risk of depression and have long-lasting consequences on children's socio-emotional and cognitive development [21], decreasing the level of life satisfaction.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review 21 Theoretical F...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food insecurity in early life was also positively associated with one's depressive symptoms, such as loneliness, fear, and poor memories [9,[15][16][17][18]. The literature suggested that experiencing famine during fetal life increased the likelihood of congenital neurological abnormalities [9].…”

Section: Food Insecurity Experience and Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does Food Insecurity in Early Life Make People More Depressed?—Evidence from CHARLS

Liu

Xue-cun

2022

Sustainability

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Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data, this paper estimates the long-term association between food insecurity and later adult health and health behaviors with the Probit model. The results show that food insecurity in early life significantly increases adults’ depression likelihood (measured by the CES-D scale). The food insecurity experience is also negatively and significantly associated with individual self-rated health status, memory, sleep quality, and life satisfaction. The negative association between food insecurity and cognitive ability and sleep hours is larger for females.

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Associations of Food Insecurity and Memory Function Among Middle to Older–Aged Adults in the Health and Retirement Study

Kezios

Jawadekar

et al. 2023

JAMA Netw Open

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ImportanceFood insecurity is a leading public health issue in the US. Research on food insecurity and cognitive aging is scarce, and is mostly cross-sectional. Food insecurity status and cognition both can change over the life course, but their longitudinal relationship remains unexplored.ObjectiveTo examine the longitudinal association between food insecurity and changes in memory function during a period of 18 years among middle to older–aged adults in the US.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThe Health and Retirement Study is an ongoing population-based cohort study of individuals aged 50 years or older. Participants with nonmissing information on their food insecurity in 1998 who contributed information on memory function at least once over the study period (1998-2016) were included. To account for time-varying confounding and censoring, marginal structural models were created, using inverse probability weighting. Data analyses were conducted between May 9 and November 30, 2022.Main outcomes and MeasuresIn each biennial interview, food insecurity status (yes/no) was assessed by asking respondents whether they had enough money to buy food or ate less than they felt they should. Memory function was a composite score based on self-completed immediate and delayed word recall task of a 10-word list and proxy-assessed validated instruments.ResultsThe analytic sample included 12 609 respondents (mean [SD] age, 67.7 [11.0] years, 8146 [64.60%] women, 10 277 [81.51%] non-Hispanic White), including 11 951 food-secure and 658 food-insecure individuals in 1998. Over time, the memory function of the food-secure respondents decreased by 0.045 SD units annually (β for time, −0.045; 95% CI, −0.046 to −0.045 SD units). The memory decline rate was faster among food-insecure respondents than food-secure respondents, although the magnitude of the coefficient was small (β for food insecurity × time, −0.0030; 95% CI, −0.0062 to −0.00018 SD units), which translates to an estimated 0.67 additional (ie, excess) years of memory aging over a 10-year period for food-insecure respondents compared with food-secure respondents.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this cohort study of middle to older–aged individuals, food insecurity was associated with slightly faster memory decline, suggesting possible long-term negative cognitive function outcomes associated with exposure to food insecurity in older age.

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Food insecurity and brain health in adults: A systematic review

Cited by 20 publications

References 60 publications

Food insecurity and health outcomes among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in India

Food insecurity and health outcomes among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in India

Does Food Insecurity in Early Life Make People More Depressed?—Evidence from CHARLS

Associations of Food Insecurity and Memory Function Among Middle to Older–Aged Adults in the Health and Retirement Study

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