Hunger in French Guiana’s Vulnerable Urban Neighborhoods: A Neglected Consequence of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: In French Guiana, restrictions to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 were put in place between March 2020 and March 2022. In vulnerable urban neighborhoods, during this period, requests for food assistance increased and fear of hunger overtook fear of being affected by COVID-19. Objective: The objective of this survey was to describe food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in French Guiana and to study the relationship between the socioeconomic conditions of the study households and household hunger. Methods: A multicenter survey was therefore conducted in mobile clinics and fixed structures providing care to at-risk urban populations. In a face-to-face interview, a community health worker asked participants questions about the sociodemographic and economic profile of the household, and about household food security (food consumption score, coping strategies in the face of food shortages, and household hunger index). Two hundred and seventy-seven households were recruited in February 2021. Results: According to the household hunger scale, 42.6% of households experienced moderate hunger and 23.8% of households experienced severe hunger in the month preceding the survey. Lack of residence permit, lack of social support, water insecurity, small housing, and lack of access to an urban garden were determinants related to the risk of household hunger. Conclusions: Food insecurity have affected a large majority of the households in this survey, and the immediate consequences for children’s health were already apparent. These results draw attention to a neglected health problem in a socioeconomically vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small for Gestational Age Newborns in French Guiana: The Importance of Health Insurance for Prevention

“…Int J Public Health | Owned by SSPH+ | Published by Frontiers malaria [55], micronutrient deficiency [56] and even hunger [57]) that mostly hit the most disadvantaged, focusing on the following evidence-based antenatal interventions may be useful to reduce the proportion of SVN: syphilis and malaria prevention; micronutriment supplementation as well as balanced diets [58]. The latter could prove very useful in our context as it has been noted in a literature review that maternal nutritional status has the greatest population-attributable fraction for SGA (28.15%), ahead of environmental and other exposures during pregnancy (15.82%), pregnancy history (11.01%), and general health issues or morbidity (10.34%) [4].…”

Contrasted life trajectories: reconstituting the main population exposomes in French Guiana

“…Despite the lack of precise studies detailing food consumption in different populations (culture and socioeconomic level greatly shape diet), the nutritional transition from predominant undernourishment to predominance of overnourishment is not complete. While overweight and obesity are very frequent ( 26 , 27 ), it has recently been emphasized that food insecurity and nutritional deficiencies are perhaps even more frequent ( 28 , 29 ) and often associated with overweight/obese persons with micronutrient deficiencies. These nutritional problems largely overlap with social precariousness—which concerns over half of the population in French Guiana—and affect the vulnerable period of the first 1,000 days after conception ( 28 ).…”

Complex Sex Differences in Life Expectancy in French Guiana

“…In this deprivation context, the high prevalence of obesity is not so surprising [ 27 ]. Furthermore, the high risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in French Guiana may have links with epigenetic factors triggered by nutritional anomalies during pregnancy and early childhood [ 28 , 29 ]. Finally, in a population predominantly of African ancestry, the high prevalence of obesity, notably among women, raises the question of genetic predispositions for weight gain and insulin resistance early on—early hyperinsulinism and insulin resistance were shown in Black teens—and after pregnancy in women [ 30 , 31 ].…”