Food insecurity among the elderly: Cross-sectional study with soup kitchen users

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether food insecurity is associated with the demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and health conditions of the elderly. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 427 elderly (360 years) from Campinas, São Paulo; half were users of a government-run soup kitchen and the others, their neighbors of the same sex. Food insecurity was measured by the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Univariate multinomial logistic regression was used for calculating the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval to measure the association between the independent variables and food insecurity. Variables with p<0.20 were included in a multinomial model, and only those with p<0.05 remained. Results: Most respondents (63.2%) were males; 15.2% and 6.6% were experiencing mild and moderate/severe food insecurity, respectively. The final model, adjusted for sex and age, showed that elderly with a total family income =2 minimum salaries (OR=3.41, 95%CI=1.27-9.14), who did not have a job (OR=2.95, 95%CI=1.23-7.06), and who were obese (OR=2.01, 95%CI=1.04-3.87) were more likely to be mildly food insecure. Elderly with cancer (OR=4.13, 95%CI=1.21-14.0) and those hospitalized in the past year (OR=3.16, 95%CI=1.23-8.11) were more likely to be moderately/severely food insecure. Finally, elderly living in unfinished houses (OR=2.71; and OR=2.92) and who did not consume fruits (OR=2.95 and OR=4.11) or meats daily (OR=2.04 and OR=3.83) were more likely to be mildly and moderately/severely food insecure. Conclusion: Food insecure elderly are more likely to have chronic diseases, poor nutritional status, and poor socioeconomic condition. Therefore, the welfare programs should expand the number of soup kitchens and develop other strategies to assure adequate nutrition to these elderly.