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Food insecurity increases cardiometabolic risk in adolescents

Adolescents who are food insecure are significantly more likely to demonstrate cardiometabolic risk factors, including skipping breakfast daily, insufficient sleep, current smoking and current alcohol consumption, according to findings published in Preventing Chronic Disease.

In adolescents, food insecurity may be a critical precursor to poor cardiometabolic health, the researchers suggested.

“Food insecurity remains a critical public health concern,” Shannon M. Robson, PhD, MPH, RD, from the department of behavioral health and nutrition at the University of Delaware, and colleagues wrote. “As many as one in six ... households with children in the United States do not have access to enough food for an active, healthy life.”

Food insecurity increases the risk for poor cardiometabolic health in adults, but whether this is true for adolescents is unknown, according to the researchers.

To evaluate the relationship between food insecurity and cardiometabolic risk factors among adolescents, Robson and colleagues analyzed city and state level data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. A total of 495,509 adolescents completed the survey. The researchers used logistic regression models to adjust for sex, race/ethnicity, grade and neighborhood safety.

Data indicated that food insecurity was prevalent in 12.8% of the study population.

The risk for not eating breakfast on all 7 days was more than doubled for food-insecure vs. food-secure adolescents (adjusted OR = 2.27; 95% CI, 1.61-3.21). In addition, food insecurity among adolescents was associated with a 60% increased probability of sleeping less than 8 hours per day (aOR = 1.60; 95% CI, 1.15–2.23), a 65% increased probability of current cigarette smoking (aOR = 1.65; 95% CI, 1.16–2.36;) and a 36% increased probability of current alcohol consumption (aOR = 1.36; CI, 1.01–1.84; P = .04),

“These data suggest that adolescents align more with adults than with younger children in terms of the relationship between food insecurity and cardiometabolic risk factors,” Robson and colleagues concluded. “These results have clinical and public health implications. Screening for food insecurity in the primary care setting is not common practice. Approximately 72.2% of adolescents (12–17 y) had contact with a health care professional in the last 6 months indicating that primary care may be a viable setting in which to identify food insecurity.”

“However, adolescents from low-income families may have limited access to primary health care... Our data suggest that [federal food assistance] programs are important, but uptake of these programs is necessary to achieve their intended purpose (eg, alleviate hunger),” they added. – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.