Vulnerability to Food Insecurity among Older People: The Role of Social Capital

Wendy Wills and Angela Dickinson
Additional contact information
Wendy Wills: University of Hertfordshire, UK; NIHR ARC East of England, UK
Angela Dickinson: University of Hertfordshire, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2023, vol. 28, issue 4, 946-963

Abstract: Food insecurity is a public health issue in Western countries, including the UK. Being food-insecure means older adults may not access sufficient nutritious, safe, and socially acceptable food, leading to a higher risk of malnutrition. We conducted a qualitative study of 25 households with men and women aged 60–95 years to investigate how older adults access food and to explore social capital, which might contribute to food security or prevent malnutrition. We conducted participant-led kitchen tours, interviews, photo, and video elicitation across multiple household visits. In addition, we brought stakeholders together from a range of sectors in a workshop to explore how they might respond to our empirical findings, through playing a serious game based on scenarios drawn from our data. This was a successful way to engage a diverse audience to identify possible solutions to threats to food security in later life. Analysis of the data showed that older people’s physical and mental health status and the local food environment often had a negative impact on food security. Older people leveraged social capital through reciprocal bonding and bridging social networks which supported the maintenance of food security. Data were collected before COVID-19, but the pandemic amplifies the utility of our study findings. Many social elements associated with food practices as well as how people shop have changed because of COVID-19 and other global and national events, including a cost-of-living crisis. To prevent ongoing adverse impacts on food security, focus and funding should be directed to re-establishment of social opportunities and rebuilding bridging social capital.

Keywords: ageing; food practices; food security; social capital; social networks; vulnerability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231170516 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:28:y:2023:i:4:p:946-963

DOI: 10.1177/13607804231170516

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().