Hunger and Obesity Understanding a Food Insecurity Paradigm: Workshop Summary (2011) / Chapter Skim
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5 Socioecological Perspectives: The Individual Level
5 Socioecological Perspectives: The Individual Level
Pages 71-84
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From page 71... ...
• According to research presented by one speaker, the presence of mental health problems is especially indicative of poor labor market outcomes. • Families that are persistently poor are more likely to become food insecure than other families, but children from the poor est households have lower rates of obesity than children from near-poor or moderate-income households.
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From page 72... ...
In particular, what are the mechanisms that connect food insecurity and obesity, and how do these operate at the level of the individual? Obesity and the Labor Market The first possibility is that obesity may adversely affect labor market outcomes.
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From page 73... ...
"There is a substantial amount of evidence indicating that obesity and weight gain might be related to labor market outcomes," Heflin concluded. Recent research supports the conclusion that obesity is associated with poorer labor market outcomes.
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From page 74... ...
. Women with food insufficiency report lower income, fewer work hours, more use of welfare, lower levels of formal education and job skills, poorer physical and mental health, higher occurrence of domestic violence, and less access to a car and a driver's license.
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From page 75... ...
There was some evidence for a dosage effect -- food-insufficient individuals who received high amounts of food stamp benefits experienced greater emotional distress than food-insufficient individuals who received lower levels of benefits -- and the effect was highest during the transition onto SNAP. Research Considerations Heflin pointed to two important research topics: Mismatched Time Horizons: Food insufficiency is often a very • short term problem, said Heflin.
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From page 76... ...
have a slew of negative outcomes overall, said Maria Melchior of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. Low socioeconomic position predicts higher rates of death in infancy and childhood, low birth weight, disability -- even after accounting for birth characteristics and birth weight, acute illnesses, the recurrence and severity of chronic illnesses, and poor health behaviors such as poor diets (Spencer, 2008)
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From page 77... ...
They found that the association between low childhood SES and cardiovascular risk factors decreased when they controlled for parental heart disease, childhood body mass index (BMI) , childhood IQ, childhood maltreatment, and adult SES.
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From page 78... ...
Effects Over the Life Course In understanding the long-term links between socioeconomic position, food insecurity, and health, a life course framework is helpful, said Melchior. This framework searches for the biological, social, behavioral, and psychosocial risk factors for poor health over time.
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From page 79... ...
• Long-term evaluations of policies in this area are important, be cause current findings suggest that favorable living conditions in childhood can improve health and socioeconomic outcomes con comitantly and later in life. • The many risk factors and mechanisms that can explain the asso ciation between poor SES and poor health need to be examined.
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From page 80... ...
Low income is one of the main correlates of food insecurity in families. Families that are persistently poor are likely to become food insecure;
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From page 81... ...
Using the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Hofferth and Curtin (2005) looked at detailed information on food expenditures, food assistance programs, food insecurity, and overweight and obesity measured directly in children.
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From page 82... ...
In response to the same question, Heflin said that her research produced evidence for causal influences extending in both directions. Food insufficiency is a risk factor for emotional distress and depression, and a change in mental health status is associated with a move into food insufficiency.
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From page 83... ...
"A person who is depressed probably sees a lot of things as worse than they might on a day when they weren't depressed." Because food insecurity is self-reported, someone who is depressed may be more likely to report subjective food insecurity than someone who is not depressed, whereas the two individuals may actually be experiencing the same level of objective food insecurity -- this would lead to a measurement bias. A possible way to overcome this problem would be to use longitudinal studies to look at correlations between food security and measured outcomes as opposed to reported outcomes.
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From page 84... ...
2007. Work trajectories, income changes, and food insufficiency in a Michigan welfare population.
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