Summary
The study assesses the relationship between food insecurity with and without hunger to that of both moderate psychological distress (MPD) and serious psychological distress (SPD) among among Black/African-Americans using 2009 and 2011/2012 adult public-use data from African-American respondents of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Descriptive statistics were utilized to identify prevalence of psychological distress among socio-demographic and mental-health associated variables. To evaluate the association between psychological distress, the authors’ primary exposure variable of food security, and other variables, the authors utilized survey-weighted multinomial logistic regression.
Authors found prevalence of mild to MPD was higher among those reporting food insecurity while SPD was highest for those with food insecurity and hunger. While MPD was significantly associated with food insecurity, Black/African-Americans with food insecurity and hunger displayed over sixfold odds of higher serious psychological distress, as compared to those living at or above 200 percent federal poverty level.
Publication Authors:
- Nickolas L. Allen
- Benjamin J. Becerra
- Monideepa B. Becerra