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Food insecurity in children may lead to obesity, metabolic syndrome
Children who do not have adequate access to nutritious food are more likely to have obesity or metabolic diseases, according to research in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
“The study makes it clear that food insecurity is a public health issue,” David H. Holben, PhD, RDN, LD, professor and chairman of the department of nutrition and hospitality management at the University of Mississippi, told Endocrine Today. “Physicians are seeing chronic disease markers in children from food-insecure homes well before these kids enter high school, so we can predict that their future health care costs will be extremely high. Nearly 20% of households in the U.S. don’t have access to food that supports a healthy lifestyle. We need to work together to identify food-insecure families and make sure they get support to minimize future obesity-related complications.”
David H. Holben
Holben and Christopher A. Taylor, PhD, RDN, LD, of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, analyzed public data from 7,435 children aged 12 to 18 years (51% boys; 62% white; mean age, 14.9 years) who completed the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2006. The survey included an in-home interview and physical examination; an adult in each participant’s household also responded to the U.S. Household Food Security Survey. Survey responses were classified into four categories: high food security (no food access problems or limitations), marginal food security (one to two indications of food access problems, little or no change in diet), low food security (three to five indications of reduced quality, variety or desirability of diet) and very low food security (six to 10 indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake).
Researchers found that children from marginally food secure (n = 751) and low-food secure households (n = 1,206) were significantly more likely to be overweight vs. high-food secure participants (OR = 1.44). Children from marginally food secure households also were 1.3 times more likely to have obesity (P = .036).
Within the cohort, 25% of children from marginally food secure, low-food secure and very low-food secure households had obesity (P = .002), with ORs of 1.52 (95% CI, 1.08-2.15), 1.42 (95% CI, 1.11-1.8) and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.1-2.08), respectively.
Children from high-food secure households had higher average HDL cholesterol levels compared with other groups (P = .019). Researchers found no significant differences in blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides or blood pressure across food-secure groups.
“Physicians need to take a more osteopathic, whole person approach to treatment when they start to see these chronic disease markers in children,” Holben said. “This means considering more than the symptoms and addressing some of the barriers to good nutrition. It’s one thing to tell a patient to start making healthier food decisions, but do their parents have the time, money and resources available to do so? Most of the time, families have to choose between food they can afford and healthier, more expensive options. Physicians can help patients identify resources to bridge that gap such as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.