Understanding the Link between Household Food Insecurity and Self-Rated Oral Health in Ghana

Daniel Amoak, Joseph Asumah Braimah, Williams Agyemang-Duah, Nancy Osei Kye, Florence Wullo Anfaara, Yujiro Sano and Roger Antabe ()
Additional contact information
Daniel Amoak: Department of Geography and Environment, Western University, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada
Joseph Asumah Braimah: Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada
Williams Agyemang-Duah: Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
Nancy Osei Kye: Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B8, Canada
Florence Wullo Anfaara: Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B8, Canada
Yujiro Sano: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON P1B 8L7, Canada
Roger Antabe: Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: There is increasing scholarly attention on the role of food insecurity on the health of older adults in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana. Yet, we know very little about the association between food insecurity and self-rated oral health. To address this void in the literature, this study uses a representative survey of adults aged 60 or older from three regions in Ghana to examine whether respondents who experienced household food insecurity rated their oral health as poor compared to their counterparts who did not. We found that 34% of respondents rated their oral health as poor, while 7%, 21%, and 36% experienced mild, moderate, and severe food insecurity, respectively. Moreover, the results from the logistic regression analysis showed that older adults who experienced mild (OR = 1.66, p < 0.05), moderate (OR = 2.06, p < 0.01), and severe (OR = 2.71, p < 0.01) food insecurity were more likely to self-rate their oral health as poor, compared to those who did not experience any type of food insecurity. Based on these findings, we discuss several implications for policymakers and directions for future research.

Keywords: food insecurity; self-rated oral health; social determinants of oral health; older adults; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/121/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/121/ (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:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:121-:d:1011022

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().