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Addressing insomnia symptoms through food aid to those with food insecurity
Ussama Ahmad Khan1, Marissa G Baker2, Christopher M Barnes3
1London Business School, London, United Kingdom.
Objectives:
We sought to move beyond typical therapeutic interventions to improve insomnia symptoms by exploring food aid as a means to decrease insomnia symptoms in contexts with high food insecurity.
Methods:
We recruited participants from food aid distribution centers in Pakistan. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment condition in which they received food aid (weighted to be 60% of participants) or were in the waitlist control condition (weighted to be 40% of participants), followed by an outcome survey. 186 participants completed the study.
Results:
Participants in the food aid condition reported significantly lower anxiety (M = 2.71, SD = 0.81) than participants in the waitlist control condition (M = 3.83, SD = 0.55), p < .001, cohen's d = -1.57. Participants in the food aid condition reported significantly lower insomnia symptoms (M = 2.66, SD = 1.12) than participants in the waitlist control condition (M = 3.28, SD = 1.01), p < .001, cohen's d = -0.57. The indirect effect of food aid on insomnia symptoms via anxiety was significant (Est = -0.45, 95% CI [-0.23, -0.69]), consistent with anxiety as a mediator.
Conclusions:
In our exploratory study of a context characterized by high food insecurity, the provision of food aid lowered anxiety and insomnia symptoms. Food aid provision may be an effective means to address insomnia in contexts in which traditional therapeutic approaches may be impractical to sufficiently scale.
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