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Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States

Food insecurity is common among college students in the United States and is associated with poorer health-related outcomes and academic performance. The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of food insecurity at a large, public university in Mississippi, a state with the second highest...

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Autores principales: Reeder, Nicole, Tapanee, Pradtana, Persell, Anna, Tolar-Peterson, Terezie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7664923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33182386
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218268
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author Reeder, Nicole
Tapanee, Pradtana
Persell, Anna
Tolar-Peterson, Terezie
author_facet Reeder, Nicole
Tapanee, Pradtana
Persell, Anna
Tolar-Peterson, Terezie
author_sort Reeder, Nicole
collection PubMed
description Food insecurity is common among college students in the United States and is associated with poorer health-related outcomes and academic performance. The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of food insecurity at a large, public university in Mississippi, a state with the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation, and to examine the associations between food insecurity, depression, and race in this group of students. Food security was measured using the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form, and depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. In total, 131 students ages 18–24 participated in the study. Food insecurity was present in 38.2% of students surveyed. The odds of food insecurity were higher among African American students compared to Caucasian students (OR = 3.50, 95% CI: 1.38, 8.90). Students with very low food security had 4.52-times greater odds of having depression than food-secure students (p = 0.011, 95% CI: 1.42, 14.36). Neither body mass index nor body fat percentage were associated with food security status. Further research is needed on strategies to address the risk of depression among food-insecure college students and the racial disparity in food insecurity rates present among college students.
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spelling pubmed-76649232020-11-14 Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States Reeder, Nicole Tapanee, Pradtana Persell, Anna Tolar-Peterson, Terezie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Food insecurity is common among college students in the United States and is associated with poorer health-related outcomes and academic performance. The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of food insecurity at a large, public university in Mississippi, a state with the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation, and to examine the associations between food insecurity, depression, and race in this group of students. Food security was measured using the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form, and depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. In total, 131 students ages 18–24 participated in the study. Food insecurity was present in 38.2% of students surveyed. The odds of food insecurity were higher among African American students compared to Caucasian students (OR = 3.50, 95% CI: 1.38, 8.90). Students with very low food security had 4.52-times greater odds of having depression than food-secure students (p = 0.011, 95% CI: 1.42, 14.36). Neither body mass index nor body fat percentage were associated with food security status. Further research is needed on strategies to address the risk of depression among food-insecure college students and the racial disparity in food insecurity rates present among college students. MDPI 2020-11-09 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7664923/ /pubmed/33182386 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218268 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Reeder, Nicole
Tapanee, Pradtana
Persell, Anna
Tolar-Peterson, Terezie
Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title_full Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title_fullStr Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title_full_unstemmed Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title_short Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States
title_sort food insecurity, depression, and race: correlations observed among college students at a university in the southeastern united states
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7664923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33182386
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218268
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