Household Food Insecurity, Diet Quality, and Obesity: An Explanatory Model

Abstract

Objective: Food insecurity (a lack of stable access to nutritious food) is reliably associated with poor diet, malnutrition, and obesity; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In this study, the hypothesis that these relations are explained by higher levels of distress, which are due to the experience of food insecurity, and unhealthy coping behaviors (eating high-calorie foods, drinking alcohol) was tested. Methods: Adults from the United Kingdom (N = 604), who were recruited online and at food banks, completed questionnaire measures of household food insecurity, physical stress, psychological distress, eating to cope, drinking to cope, diet quality, and self-reported height and weight to calculate BMI. Results: Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships, including a multilevel structural model controlling for the effect of income. As predicted, food insecurity was indirectly associated with higher BMI via greater distress and eating to cope. Food insecurity was directly associated with poorer diet quality, but this relationship was not explained by distress and eating to cope. Conclusions: Our data provide novel insight into the psychological experience of being food-insecure and how maladaptive coping mechanisms might play some role in the association between food insecurity, diet, and obesity.