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Impact of food insecurity with hunger on mental distress among community-dwelling older adults506.52 kB
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Impact of food insecurity with hunger on mental distress among community-dwelling older adults
PloS one, Vol.15(3), pp.1-11
31/03/2020
PMCID: PMC7108730
PMID: 32231372
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Abstract
Background
Hunger frequently and persistently occur in older populations in low-income countries especially in sub-Sahara Africa. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between food insecurity with hunger and psychological distress among older people in Ghana.
Methods
A total of 1200 individuals aged ≥50 years were recruited during 2016/2017 Ageing, Health, Psychological Well-being and Health-seeking Behavior Study. Associations between psychological distress (assessed with the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale) and hunger (assessed with a 30-day subjective scale) were evaluated using linear regression modeling.
Results
The overall prevalence of food insecurity was 36% with approximately 27% and 9% respectively for moderate and severe levels of hunger whilst the mean score of psychological distress was 9.5 (±4.10). Persons experiencing moderate hunger (β = 0.71, SE = 0.160, p < 0.001) and severe hunger (β = 1.81, SE = 0.280, p < 0.001) significantly reported increased psychological distress outcome compared to those without hunger. These associations varied between women (β = 1.59, SE = 0.359 p < 0.001) and men (β = 2.33, SE = 0.474, p < 0.001) as well as 50–64 age group (β = 1.48, SE = 0.368, p < 0.005) and 65+ age group (β = 2.51, SE = 0.467, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
The results suggest that experiencing hunger is associated with psychological distress and the effect may be aggravated with advancing age and in men. These findings may inform social policy initiatives and health programmatic interventions for older people exposed to food insecurity.
Details
- Title
- Impact of food insecurity with hunger on mental distress among community-dwelling older adults
- Creators
- Razak M. Gyasi - African Population and Health Research CenterBernard Obeng - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and TechnologyJoseph Y. Yeboah - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
- Publication Details
- PloS one, Vol.15(3), pp.1-11
- Publisher
- Public Library Science
- Number of pages
- 11
- Grant note
- RPG 1129310 / Lingnan University, Hong Kong
- Identifiers
- 991013036329502368
- Copyright
- © 2020 Gyasi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Academic Unit
- National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article