Prevalence and correlates of household food insecurity in Delhi and Chennai, India

Garima Rautela, Mohammed K. Ali, Dorairaj Prabhakaran, K.M. Venkat Narayan, Nikhil Tandon, Viswanathan Mohan and Lindsay M. Jaacks ()
Additional contact information
Garima Rautela: Centre for Chronic Disease Control
Mohammed K. Ali: Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Dorairaj Prabhakaran: Centre for Chronic Disease Control
K.M. Venkat Narayan: Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Nikhil Tandon: All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Viswanathan Mohan: Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre
Lindsay M. Jaacks: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, No 11, 404 pages

Abstract: Abstract India is home to nearly 200 million undernourished people, yet little is known about the characteristics of those experiencing food insecurity, especially among urban households. The objectives of this study were: (1) to report the prevalence of food insecurity in two large, population-based representative samples in urban India, (2) to describe socio-economic correlates of food insecurity in this context, and (3) to compare the dietary intake of adults living in food insecure households to that of adults living in food secure households. Data are from 4334 households participating in an ongoing population-based cohort study of a representative sample of Delhi and Chennai, India. The most recent wave of data (2017–2018) were analyzed. Food insecurity was measured using the 9-item Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and dietary intake using a 33-item qualitative food frequency questionnaire. The overall prevalence of food insecurity was 8.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.8–10.2); 15.2% (95% CI 12.0–18.4) of the poorest households (lowest wealth index tertile) were food insecure compared to 1.7% (95% CI 1.0–2.3) of the wealthiest households (highest wealth index tertile). Participants experiencing food insecurity were significantly younger and more likely to be from Delhi compared to Chennai. After adjustment for socio-economic factors (city, age, sex, education, wealth index, fuel used for cooking, and source of drinking water), participants experiencing food insecurity had significantly higher meat, poultry, roots and tubers (potato), and sugar sweetened beverage intakes, and lower vegetables, fruit, dairy, and nut intakes. Food insecurity is highly prevalent among the poorest households in urban India and is associated with intake of a number of unhealthy dietary items.

Keywords: Food supply; Hunger; Malnutrition; Urban health; Socioeconomic factors; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12571-020-01015-0

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