The Relationship Between Food Insecurity and BMI for Preschool Children

Overview

Journal Matern Child Health J

Specialty Health Services

Date 2015 Dec 15

PMID 26662281

Citations 22

Authors

Katherine E Speirs

Barbara H Fiese

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: The literature exploring the relationship between food insecurity and obesity for preschool-aged children is inconclusive and suffers from inconsistent measurement. This paper explores the relationships between concurrent household and child food insecurity and child overweight as well as differences in these relationships by child gender using a sample of 2-5 year old children.

Methods: Using measured height and weight and responses to the Household Food Security Survey Module collected from a sample of 438 preschool-aged children (mean age 39 months) and their mothers, logistic regression models were fit to estimate the relationship between household and child food insecurity and child BMI. Separate models were fit for girls and boys.

Results: Twenty-seven percent of children from food insecure households and 25 % of child food insecure children were overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 85 %). There were no statistically significant associations between either household or child food insecurity and BMI for the full sample. For girls, but not boys, household food insecurity was associated with BMI z-scores (β = 0.23, p = 0.01).

Conclusions: Although food insecurity and overweight were not significantly associated, a noteworthy proportion of food insecure children were overweight or obese. Programs for young children should address food insecurity and obesity simultaneously by ensuring that young children have regular access to nutrient-dense foods.

Citing Articles

Household food insecurity and its association with overweight and obesity in children aged 2 to 14 years.

Ortiz-Marron H, Ortiz-Pinto M, Urtasun Lanza M, Cabanas Pujadas G, Valero Del Pino V, Belmonte Cortes S BMC Public Health. 2022; 22(1):1930.

PMID: 36253730 PMC: 9578200. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14308-0.

Community Stakeholders' Perceptions on Barriers and Facilitators to Food Security of Families with Children under Three Years before and during COVID-19.

Varela E, Zeldman J, Mobley A Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(17).

PMID: 36078356 PMC: 9518144. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191710642.

A latent class analysis to identify socio-economic and health risk profiles among mothers of young children predicting longitudinal risk of food insecurity.

Daundasekara S, Schuler B, Hernandez D PLoS One. 2022; 17(8):e0272614.

PMID: 36001540 PMC: 9401138. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272614.

Urban Youth Perspectives on Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the COACHES Study.

St Pierre C, Guan W, Merrill J, Sacheck J Nutrients. 2022; 14(3).

PMID: 35276814 PMC: 8839178. DOI: 10.3390/nu14030455.

Effects of parental public health insurance eligibility on parent and child health outcomes.

Gopalan M, Lombardi C, Bullinger L Econ Hum Biol. 2021; 44:101098.

PMID: 34929550 PMC: 9301861. DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101098.

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