Primary Submission Category: Aging
Food Insecurity and Aging-Related Increases in Chronic Conditions Among Low-Income Women in the U.S.
Authors: Kelley Akiya
Presenting Author: Kelley Akiya*
Although food insecurity is more common among women, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic adults in the U.S., there is limited evidence on the long-term health implications of food insecurity for women in general or on Black and Hispanic women specifically. To help address this gap, I examined the longitudinal relationship between changes in food security and changes in chronic health conditions among female adults ages 50 and older using the 2010-2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Multi-level linear regression was used to estimate growth curves for 6,127 female respondents who had household income below 200% of the federal poverty level during at least one survey wave and contributed data at three or more time points. Separate curves were also estimated for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women. Based on likelihood ratios tests, a quadratic curve with age and age squared along with random intercepts and random linear age slopes was identified as providing the best fit for the data. In an initial growth curve model adjusting for age and the survey cohort, becoming food insecure was associated with having an additional 0.05 chronic health conditions (CI95=0.03-.07, p<0.01). The estimate reduced to 0.04 (CI95=0.02 – .06, p<0.01) after adjusting for other demographic, socioeconomic, health, and insurance variables and adjusting for receipt of various public benefits (e.g. social security, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program). Among Black female respondents (n=1,629) and Hispanic female respondents (n= 1,159), food insecurity was associated with an additional 0.06 (CI95=0.03 – 0.09, p<0.01) and 0.03 (CI95=-0.01, 0.08, p=0.12) conditions respectively. Results suggest that food insecurity may contribute to chronic disease burden among low-income women as they age, on-top of other social and health-related risk factors, and that expanded development and scale-up of food and nutritional supports tailored to the needs of these sub-populations are warranted.