Food Insecurity and Affecting Factors in Households With Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of food insecurity and affecting factors in households with children in Turkey during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This is a cross-sectional study. The participants were recruited by the snowball sampling method, and the data we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 2021-06, Vol.16 (6), p.1-2533
Main Authors: Bulucu Büyüksoy, Gizem Deniz, Çatıker, Aslıhan, Özdil, Kamuran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chronic illnesses
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Cross-sectional studies
Data collection
Expenditures
Families & family life
Food security
Health care
Households
Hunger
Income
Medical research
Nutrition
Original Research
Pandemics
Poverty
Public health
Regression analysis
Smartphones
Social networks
Variables
Womens health
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Summary:The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of food insecurity and affecting factors in households with children in Turkey during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This is a cross-sectional study. The participants were recruited by the snowball sampling method, and the data were collected by means of a link sent to their smartphones through their social media accounts. This study included 211 households with at least 1 child. The study revealed that 21.8% households had food insecurity that was not at the hunger threshold. The monthly income of 80.6% of the households was below the poverty line and monthly income decreased in more than half of the households during the pandemic. Food insecurity increased 2.5 times when the households comprised workers or self-employed individuals (odds ratio [OR] = 2.529; P = 0.002), increased 3 times when the monthly income of the households decreased (OR = 3.131; P = 0.000), and increased 2 times when total monthly income of the household fell below poverty line during the pandemic (OR = 2.001; P = 0.049). It is determined that nearly half the households have food insecurity and that the pandemic poses a risk in terms of food security. We recommend that public health studies should be planned to ensure accessibility to healthy foods.
ISSN:1935-7893
1938-744X
DOI:10.1017/dmp.2021.172