The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rural Food Security in High Income Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, rural-dwelling people in high-income countries were known to have greater challenges accessing healthy food than their urban counterparts. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted food supplies across the world, and public health restrictions have changed the way people shop for food, potentially exacerbating food insecurity. This systematic literature review aimed to synthesize the available evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aspects of food insecurity in rural populations residing in high-income countries. Five electronic databases were searched, identifying 22 articles that assessed food insecurity prevalence or data on food availability, access, utilization and the stability of the food supply in rural populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten studies examined the prevalence of food insecurity in rural populations, with the reported prevalence ranging from 15% to 95%. Where rural/urban comparisons were presented, most studies (n = 5; 71%) reported that food insecurity was significantly higher in rural regions. Five studies examined the availability of food and eight studies examined access to food, identifying that rural populations often had lower food availability and access to food during the pandemic. In contrast, two studies identified positive effects such as more gardening and increased online access to food. Rural populations experienced multiple changes to food utilization, such as reduced diet quality and food safety observed in eight studies, but this was not shown to be different from urban populations. Additionally, the food supply in rural regions was perceived to be affected in two studies. The results of this review may be used to inform region-specific mitigation strategies to decrease the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic and future global events on food security. However, the lack of consistency in study outcomes in research on rural populations limits the identification of priority areas for intervention at a global-scale.

The new normal for food insecurity? A repeated cross-sectional survey over 1 year during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

“…Interestingly, in our study, rurality was significantly associated with food insecurity at Surveys 1 and 2, but not 3, which may relate to the fact that challenges with food security in rural areas are compounded by lower availability and access to healthy food when the food supply is disrupted. These results align with recent review of food insecurity in rural regions of high income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic [44] that demonstrated that food insecurity was often significantly higher in rural regions, which was often related to lower food availability and access to food during the pandemic. Given the stability of the food supply had recovered by May 2021, this could indicate that temporary food supply challenges disproportionately affected rural-dwelling Australians, extending previously published research [4].…”

Impact of COVID-19 on the food security and identifying the compromised food security dimension: A systematic review protocol

“…Due to COVID-19, 3.3 billion global workforces are at risk of losing their livelihood [ 14 ]. The food insecurity due to COVID-19 affects the global society regardless of their economic status [ 15 , 16 ], but the severity of the food insecurity is substantial in lower income countries than developed one [ 12 ].…”

How did lockdown and social distancing policies change the eating habits of diabetic patients during the COVID-19 pandemic? A systematic review

“…Additionally, trends on social media and online cooking classes seem to support this result (Ghosh et al, 2020;Grabia et al, 2020;Amataiti et al, 2021;Carvalhal et al, 2021;Kishimoto et al, 2021). In the study of Kent et al (2022), these changes in eating habits were also reported in the normal population during the COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing (Kent et al, 2022). Even though most patients tended to consume more fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains, this inclination faced difficulties such as limited access and availability of fresh food and disruptions in food distribution (Ghosh et al, 2020;Grabia et al, 2020;Olickal et al, 2020;Ruiz-Roso et al, 2020;Sankar et al, 2020;Amataiti et al, 2021;Carvalhal et al, 2021;Kishimoto et al, 2021;Vetrani et al, 2021;Maruo et al, 2022).…”