Food insecurity is associated with anxiety, stress, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in a cohort of women with or at risk of HIV in the United States

While food insecurity has been associated with depression, this 2019 study set out to examine its correlation with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study applied data collected in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), an American cohort study of 2553 women (71.6% African American/black) with/at risk of HIV. Questionnaires were administered every 6 months from April 2013 until March 2016. Current marginal, low, and very low food securities were discovered to be linked with higher GAD-7 scores (generalized anxiety disorder assessment), and with a significantly greater likelihood of screening positive for moderate-to-severe GAD. Furthermore, low and very low food security 6 months earlier was associated with generalized anxiety disorder outcomes at the present visit. Food security also showed similar dose-response relationships with the measures of perceived stress (PSS-10 score) and PTSD (PCL-C score). In fact, those with very low food security were 1.93 times likely to screen positive for PTSD. Whittle et al. have produced evidence connecting food insecurity with several poor mental health outcomes among women in the United States with or at risk of HIV. [NPID: food insecurity, mental health, GAD, anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, HIV, stress, perceived stress, women]

Year: 2019

Reference: Whittle, H. J., Sheira, L. A., Wolfe, W. R., Frongillo, E. A., Palar, K., Merenstein, D., Wilson, T. E., Adedimeji, A., Weber, K. M., Adimora, A. A., Ofotokun, I., Metsch, L., Turan, J. M., Wentz, E. L., Tien, P. C., & Weiser, S. D. (2019). Food insecurity is associated with anxiety, stress, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in a cohort of women with or at risk of HIV in the United States. The Journal of nutrition, 149(8), 1393–1403. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxz093