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Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review

Food insecurity (FI) is one of the major causes of malnutrition and is associated with a range of negative health outcomes in low and middle-income countries. The burden of FI in southern Africa is unknown, although FI continues to be a major public health problem across sub-Saharan Africa as a whol...

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Autores principales: Militao, Elias M. A., Salvador, Elsa M., Uthman, Olalekan A., Vinberg, Stig, Macassa, Gloria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9100282/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564477
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095082
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author Militao, Elias M. A.
Salvador, Elsa M.
Uthman, Olalekan A.
Vinberg, Stig
Macassa, Gloria
author_facet Militao, Elias M. A.
Salvador, Elsa M.
Uthman, Olalekan A.
Vinberg, Stig
Macassa, Gloria
author_sort Militao, Elias M. A.
collection PubMed
description Food insecurity (FI) is one of the major causes of malnutrition and is associated with a range of negative health outcomes in low and middle-income countries. The burden of FI in southern Africa is unknown, although FI continues to be a major public health problem across sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Therefore, this review sought to identify empirical studies that related FI to health outcomes among adults in southern Africa. Altogether, 14 publications using diverse measures of FI were reviewed. The majority of the studies measured FI using modified versions of the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module. A wide range in prevalence and severity of FI was reported (18–91%), depending on the measurement tool and population under investigation. Furthermore, FI was mostly associated with hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, depression and increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition. Based on the findings, future research is needed, especially in countries with as yet no empirical studies on the subject, to identify and standardize measures of FI suitable for the southern African context and to inform public health policies and appropriate interventions aiming to alleviate FI and potentially improve health outcomes in the region.
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spelling pubmed-91002822022-05-14 Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review Militao, Elias M. A. Salvador, Elsa M. Uthman, Olalekan A. Vinberg, Stig Macassa, Gloria Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Food insecurity (FI) is one of the major causes of malnutrition and is associated with a range of negative health outcomes in low and middle-income countries. The burden of FI in southern Africa is unknown, although FI continues to be a major public health problem across sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Therefore, this review sought to identify empirical studies that related FI to health outcomes among adults in southern Africa. Altogether, 14 publications using diverse measures of FI were reviewed. The majority of the studies measured FI using modified versions of the United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module. A wide range in prevalence and severity of FI was reported (18–91%), depending on the measurement tool and population under investigation. Furthermore, FI was mostly associated with hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, depression and increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition. Based on the findings, future research is needed, especially in countries with as yet no empirical studies on the subject, to identify and standardize measures of FI suitable for the southern African context and to inform public health policies and appropriate interventions aiming to alleviate FI and potentially improve health outcomes in the region. MDPI 2022-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9100282/ /pubmed/35564477 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095082 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Militao, Elias M. A.
Salvador, Elsa M.
Uthman, Olalekan A.
Vinberg, Stig
Macassa, Gloria
Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title_full Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title_fullStr Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title_full_unstemmed Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title_short Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Other than Malnutrition in Southern Africa: A Descriptive Systematic Review
title_sort food insecurity and health outcomes other than malnutrition in southern africa: a descriptive systematic review
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9100282/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564477
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095082
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