Relationship between food insecurity and obesity-related comorbidities

Food insecurity, which is inadequate access, availability and use of food, has been associated with obesity. This study investigated the relationship between food insecurity and obesity-related comorbidities.

We analyzed 14713 adults aged ≥19 years in the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2019-2021. Socioeconomic status, including household income, education, and occupation, lifestyle factors, including smoking status, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI), and obesity-related comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthritis, asthma, depression, gout, and cancer were evaluated. The ORs and 95 % CIs for obesity-related comorbidities according to the food security status were calculated using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Of the 14713 participants, 4.1 % belonged to food insecure group. After adjusting for age, sex, and lifestyle factors, the ORs (95 % CIs) for hypertension (1.42, 1.12-1.80), uncontrolled hypertension (1.40, 1.02-1.91), diabetes (1.59, 1.22-2.07), uncontrolled diabetes (1.72, 1.29-2.29), hypertriglyceridemia (1.43, 1.04-1.96), cardiovascular disease (1.43, 1.00-2.03), and depression (2.43, 1.57-3.74) increased in the food insecure group compared to the food secure group. After adjusting for age, sex, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status, the ORs (95 % CIs) for diabetes (1.35, 1.03-1.77), uncontrolled diabetes (1.51, 1.13-2.03), and depression (1.63, 1.06-2.51) increased in the food insecure group compared to the food secure group.

Food insecurity was associated with multiple obesity-related comorbidities. Improving food insecurity is needed to prevent obesity-related comorbidities.