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Food insecurity and mental health: new answers and remaining questions
  1. Miriam Evensen
  1. Centre for Disease Burden/ Department of Health and Inequality, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo 0213, Norway
  1. Correspondence to Dr Miriam Evensen, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo 0213, Norway; Miriam.Evensen{at}fhi.no

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216938

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    Food insecurity—the economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food—is high on the agenda.1 In Europe, estimates from Eurostat in 2020 show that 7% of households with children are food insecure.2 There is a worry that the corresponding figures for 2021 may be even higher as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased unemployment and economic uncertainty, processes that likely exacerbate food insecurity.3 4 The fact that so many children experience insecure access to food is important in its own right, but food insecurity is also associated with long-term adverse outcomes related to, for example, education and nutrition.5 6

    In a timely new study, Men et al 7 examine the association between food insecurity and mental health problems among children and young adults. Using large-scale Canadian survey data on more than 55 000 individuals, they document that food insecurity is associated with worse mental health, and …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @miriamevensen

    • Contributors ME is the sole author of the article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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