Children in food-insecure homes at higher mental health risk: Study

New Delhi: Children and adolescents living in food-insecure households have a 55 per cent higher frequency of visits to a doctor for mental health issues than those with adequate food supplies, according to a study.

The research, published recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at population health survey data from the Canadian Community Health Survey on 32,321 children and adolescents.

Researchers used a validated measurement tool to categorise household food access as food-secure, marginally food-insecure, moderately food-insecure, or severely food-insecure.

Of the total, 5,216 (16.1 per cent) were living in food-insecure, 1,952 (6 per cent) in marginally food-insecure, 2,348 (7.3 per cent) in moderately food-insecure and 916 (2.8 per cent) in severely food-insecure households.

Researchers also found that children and adolescents in food-insecure homes had a 74 per cent higher prevalence of past-year acute care visits, defined as an emergency department visit or hospitalisation for a mental or substance use disorder.

The most common visits were for neurodevelopmental disorders, mood and anxiety disorders followed by social problems and other mental health issues.

"The coexistence of household food insecurity and service use for mental and substance use disorders here is problematic, given that both of these conditions have each been found to have negative consequences for social, educational and developmental outcomes among children and adolescents," said Kelly Anderson, associate professor at Western University in Canada.

"Taken together, these findings are concerning, and we need strong public policy to support families who face food insecurity," said senior study author Salimah Shariff, staff scientist at Western University.

The researchers note that the data is also almost a decade old, and food insecurity has increased in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relationship between food insecurity and mental health issues may be more complicated, studies suggest.

"Given the diverse mental health conditions examined, it is unlikely that the mechanism of harm is lack of specific nutrients or poor diet quality," said Lynn McIntyre, a professor at the University of Calgary, Canada.

"Much more likely is that food insecurity contributes to mental distress among those living in difficult circumstances, as has been shown in studies of the relationship between severity of household food insecurity and mental health disorders among adults," McIntyre said.

Reducing food insecurity may help alleviate some mental health issues for children and youth, the researchers said.

"Clinicians should advocate as vociferously about the need for income security for families who are food-insecure as they do for solutions to emergency departments being filled with patients who need primary health care.

"Some jurisdictions have proposed that practitioners screen patients for financial strain and take steps to ensure that those identified as such receive their financial entitlements," McIntyre added.