Food, housing insecurity linked to pandemic-related physical, mental health changes
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Key takeaways:
- Food and housing insecurity were associated with negative pandemic-related mental and physical health outcomes.
- This suggests that underrepresented communities may bear the brunt of these negative outcomes.
WASHINGTON — Food insecurity and housing instability were associated with self-reported negative mental and physical health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a poster presented here.
The poster was named the best poster related to diversity at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America Conference.
“Minoritized communities with limited socioeconomic resources were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sarah Abdul-Ghani, an undergraduate research assistant in the Fani Affective Neuroscience Lab at Emory University in Atlanta, told Healio. “Food insecurity and housing instability may place this community at an increased risk of negative COVID-19-related psychological outcomes.”
Abdul-Ghani and colleagues recruited 118 people from medical clinics and ads during the COVID-19 pandemic to participate in their study. Participants self-reported economic insecurity, concern about the physical and mental health impacts of the pandemic and changes in anxiety and anhedonia. Participants’ addresses were used to identify area-level deprivation index.
Overall, participants were primarily women (95.8%) and Black (89.7%) and had a mean age of 38.6 years. Analyses showed that food insecurity was a significant predictor of concern about the physical health impact of the pandemic (P < .05) and concern about the mental health impact of the pandemic (P .001). Housing instability predicted changes in anxiety and anhedonia (both P < .05).
“Most surprising was our finding that objective measures of socioeconomic status (such as income, employment, neighborhood deprivation percentile) were not significantly associated with COVID-19 psychological health outcomes,” Abdul-Ghani told Healio. “Rather, subjective measures of economic insecurity, such as perceived housing instability and food insecurity, were most predictive of COVID-19-related mental health outcomes.”
The findings may help researchers, clinicians and policymakers develop “effective interventions, such as expanding access to nutritious food sources and housing support,” according to Abdul-Ghani. More research on the psychological impacts of the pandemic on underrepresented communities is needed, Abdul-Ghani said.