Abstract
Food insecurity is the lack of availability or access to safe and healthy food due to limited resources and is a nutritional factor associated with obesity. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between food insecurity and obesity in university employees. This study was conducted among 142 administrative employees of a private university between January 2020 and October 2020. Data was collected with Household Food Security Survey Module-Short Form (HFSSM-SF), and anthropometric measurements and socio-demographic characteristics were recorded. Of the participants 39.4% were overweight, and 21.8% were obese. 64.1% of the individuals were food secure, and 35.9% were food insecure. There was no statistically significant relationship between body mass index (BMI) classes or waist circumference (WC) categories and both food accessibility levels and food security status (p>0.05). A weak significant positive relationship existed between the BMI (kg/m2) and HFFSM-SF scores (r=0.219,p=0.009). As the risk of inaccessibility of food increased, the BMI of the participants increased. According to the data collected with the HFSSM-SF, it has been determined approximately one-third of the employees experience food insecurity. It is crucial to develop policies that will contribute to preventing food insecurity with the necessary investigations and future studies.
Subject
General Materials Science
Reference38 articles.
1. Farrell P, Thow AM, Abimbola S, Faruqui N, Negin J. How food insecurity could lead to obesity in LMICs. Health Promotion International 2018;33(5):812-826.
2. Chapter 2. Food security: concepts and measurement[21]. Fao.org. Published 2015. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/y4671e/y4671e06.htm (Accessed February 11,2021)
3. 2020 - Global Report on Food Crises | World Food Programme. www.wfp.org. Available at:https://www.wfp.org/publications/2020-global-report-food-crises(Accessed February 11, 2021)
4. Hernandez DC, Reesor L, Murillo R. Gender Disparities in the Food Insecurity–Overweight and Food Insecurity–Obesity Paradox among Low-Income Older Adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2017;117(7):1087-1096.
5. Nikniaz L, Tabrizi JS, Sadeghi-Bazargani H, Farahbakhsh M, Nikniaz Z. Food insecurity increases the odds of obesity among Iranian women: A population-based study of northwestern Iran. Nutrition & Dietetics 2017;74(5):454-459.