Page 22 - IJPS-9-1

International Journal of
Population Studies Food insecurity severity and depression

universal basic income, increasing minimum wage, and Writing – review & editing: Elizabeth Ann Luke, Josh
increasing job opportunities at the local, state, and federal Wallace, Roger Wong
level should be considered to reduce depressive symptoms
across all populations (Patel et al., 2018). Ethics approval and consent to participate
Our study has several limitations. First, the NHANES This study was approved by the SUNY Upstate Institutional
is a cross-sectional data set, which limits our ability to Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects
establish causality that food insecurity leads to depression. (#1999060-2).
Second, we restricted our sample to only household adults
without children because the NHANES and the USDA Consent for publication
provide a different food insecurity module measuring child Not applicable.
food insecurity, which cannot be merged with our 10-item
food security questionnaire for adults. Despite these Availability of data
limitations, our study has some noteworthy strengths. In This study uses public data, which may be obtained
particular, we utilized a nationally representative sample through the NHANES website: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
with sampling weights applied, which enables our results
to be generalizable to the entire U.S. adult population. In nhanes/index.htm
addition, we used standardized measures for both food References
insecurity and depression, which have both been tested
extensively to have high psychometric properties. Allen, L.H. (2009). How common is Vitamin B-12 deficiency?
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(2): 693S-696S.
5. Conclusions https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2008.26947A
Our study supports prior literature that experiencing food Alpert, J.E., Mischoulon, D., Rubenstein, G.E.F., Bottonari, K.,
insecurity has adverse effects on mental health, specifically Nierenberg, A.A., & Fava, M. (2002). Folinic acid (Leucovorin)
in the context of depression. Interventions are therefore as an adjunctive treatment for SSRI-refractory depression.
essential to address household food insecurity, especially Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 14(1): 33-38.
during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, given that https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015271927517
recent research has also identified that food insecurity is
significantly associated with increased COVID-19 risk Ashe, K.M., & Lapane, K.L. (2018). Food insecurity and obesity:
Exploring the role of social support. Journal of Womens
(Searles & Wong, 2022). Future work should expand Health (Larchmt), 27(5): 651-658.
on these findings and examine whether the association
between food insecurity and depression may be moderated https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2017.6454
by sex and income, which we identified were also Bickel, G., Nord, M., Price, C., Hamilton, W., & Cook, J. (2000).
significantly associated with depression. Our results can be Guide to Measuring Household Food Security, Revised 2000.
used to inform public health research and interventions for US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service,
food security and mental health moving forward. p.52. Available from: https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/
default/files/fsguide.pdf [Last accessed on 2023 Dec 31].
Acknowledgments
Burris, M., Kihlstrom, L., Arce, K.S., Prendergast, K., Dobbins, J.,
None. McGrath, E., Renda, A., Shannon, E., Cordier, T., Song, Y.,
& Himmelgreen, D. (2021). Food insecurity, loneliness, and
Funding social support among older adults. Journal of Hunger and
Environmental Nutrition, 16(1): 29-44.
None.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2019.1595253
Conflict of interest
Chung, H.K., Kim, O.Y., Kwak, S.Y., Cho, Y., Lee, K.W., &
The authors declare no competing of interests. Shin, M.J. (2016). Household food insecurity is associated
with adverse mental health indicators and lower quality of
Author contributions life among Koreans: Results from the Korea National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey 2012-2013. Nutrients,
Conceptualization: Elizabeth Ann Luke, Roger Wong 8(12): 819.
Formal analysis: Elizabeth Ann Luke, Josh Wallace
Supervision: Roger Wong https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8120819
Writing – original draft: Elizabeth Ann Luke, Josh Wallace, Goodwin, R.D., Dierker, L.C., Wu, M., Galea, S., Hoven, C.W.,
Roger Wong & Weinberger, A.H. (2022). Trends in U.S. depression

Volume 9 Issue 1 (2023) 16 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.435