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Social isolation, loneliness, and quality of life among food-insecure adults.
Food insecurity may negatively impact social interactions, in addition to being linked to poor health outcomes, which may escalate feelings of loneliness and social exclusion and negatively impact health-related quality of life. This retrospective cohort study by Park and Berkowitz (2024) looked at the relationships between food insecurity and adult US loneliness, social isolation, and health-related quality of life, using data from the 2020–2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The relationship between food insecurity in one year and the sequelae of interest in the next year was evaluated using regression models, which also considered the individual’s baseline characteristics. The authors discovered a substantial correlation between reporting social isolation and loneliness in 2021 and experiencing food insecurity in 2020. Furthermore, a lower self-reported mental health and mental component summary score from the Short Form-12 Health Survey in 2021 was substantially correlated with food insecurity in 2020. On the other hand, there were little or no correlations between quality of life and physical health. Adults in the US who experience food insecurity tend to have worse mental and social well-being. Rather than concentrating only on nutrition, the authors encourage utilizing comprehensive interventions aimed at reducing food insecurity, which consider the various ways that food insecurity affects health, including unsatisfactory mental health and difficulties engaging in social activities, in addition to inferior diets. [NPID: Food insecurity, adults, loneliness, social isolation, quality of life, retrospective cohort study]
Year: 2024
