Dataset Information

Identification of food insecurity factors in French-speaking Belgium: a qualitative study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Diet is an essential determinant of health. Among the health determinants, we find access problems that are summarized as food insecurity. While such food insecurity has been studied in other countries and correlated to several health problems, it has been scarcely assessed in Belgium. The purpose of this work was to determine the factors of food insecurity existing within the Belgian population. METHOD:From November 2016 to February 2017, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 19 adults present attending the waiting rooms of six Public Social Action Centers in French-speaking Belgium, analyzed by grounded theory. RESULTS:In Belgium, for given food preferences and needs, food insecurity could be summarized as inadequacy between necessary and available resources within two dimensions: at the access level, for financial, temporal, informational, and freedom of action, and at the food use level, for temporal factors, material, knowledge, and skills. In these situations of inadequacy, participants reported finding either strategies to restore balance, or being forced to alter the quality or quantity of their diet. CONCLUSION:While several factors of food insecurity may exist in Belgium, it appears essential that the first line of care these factors into consideration, since they could interfere with care and health, and because the first line of care is ideally placed to inform and refer the patients in question. Several courses of action are proposed in this work, which must still be confirmed by other studies.

SUBMITTER: Huberland V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6896693 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Identification of food insecurity factors in French-speaking Belgium: a qualitative study.

Huberland Vincent V Semaille Pascal P Kacenelenbogen Nadine N

BMC public health 20191205 1

<h4>Background</h4>Diet is an essential determinant of health. Among the health determinants, we find access problems that are summarized as food insecurity. While such food insecurity has been studied in other countries and correlated to several health problems, it has been scarcely assessed in Belgium. The purpose of this work was to determine the factors of food insecurity existing within the Belgian population.<h4>Method</h4>From November 2016 to February 2017, a qualitative study using semi ...[more]

PMID: 31805900

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundFood insecurity contributes to poor health outcomes among people living with HIV. In Latin America and the Caribbean, structural factors such as poverty, stigma, and inequality disproportionately affect women and may fuel both the HIV epidemic and food insecurity.MethodsWe examined factors contributing to food insecurity among women living with HIV (WLHIV) in the Dominican Republic (DR). Data collection included in-depth, semi-structured interviews in 2013 with 30 WLHIV with indications of food insecurity who resided in urban or peri-urban areas and were recruited from local HIV clinics. In-person interviews were conducted in Spanish. Transcripts were coded using content analysis methods and an inductive approach to identify principal and emergent themes.ResultsRespondents identified economic instability as the primary driver of food insecurity, precipitated by enacted stigma in the labor and social domains. Women described experiences of HIV-related labor discrimination in formal and informal sectors. Women commonly reported illegal HIV testing by employers, and subsequent dismissal if HIV-positive, especially in tourism and free trade zones. Enacted stigma in the social domain manifested as gossip and rejection by family, friends, and neighbors and physical, verbal, and sexual abuse by intimate partners, distancing women from sources of economic and food support. These experiences with discrimination and abuse contributed to internalized stigma among respondents who, as a result, were fearful and hesitant to disclose their HIV status; some participants reported leaving spouses and/or families, resulting in further isolation from economic resources, food and other support. A minority of participants described social support by friends, spouses, families and support groups, which helped to ameliorate food insecurity and emotional distress.ConclusionsAddressing food insecurity among WLHIV requires policy and programmatic interventions to enforce existing laws designed to protect the rights of people living with HIV, reduce HIV-related stigma, and improve gender equality.

Project description:General practitioners (GPs) play a critical role in patient acceptance of vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is a growing phenomenon in the general population but also affects GPs. Few data exist on VH among GPs. The objectives of this analysis of a population of GPs in the Belgian Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF) were to: (1) determine the prevalence and the features of VH, (2) identify the correlates, and (3) estimate the discrepancy in vaccination's behaviors between the GPs' children and the recommendations made to their patients. An online survey was carried out among the population of general practitioners practicing in the WBF between 7 January and 18 March 2020. A hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out based on various dimensions of vaccine hesitancy: perception of the risks and the usefulness of vaccines as well as vaccine recommendations for their patients. A total of 251 GPs answered the survey. The average percentage of moderate to high vaccine hesitancy was 50.6%. Three factors were independently associated with increased risk of vaccine hesitancy: an age <50 years old, having no children, and having no contact with selected vaccine-preventable disease (measles, complicated influenza, chronic hepatitis B (HBV), bacterial meningitis, or cervical cancer) in the past 5 years. VH was associated with controversies on vaccines' safety. GPs who had vaccinated their children against six diseases (MMR, meningococcus C (MenC), HBV, and HPV) tended not to recommend the same vaccines to their patients. Among GPs with all children vaccinated against HBV, only 37.5% recommended catch-up HBV immunization to their patients. In this small cohort of GP, moderate to high VH was associated with controversies on vaccines' safety and with specific personal characteristics (age <50, no children, and no recent experience with a serious VPD). As previously reported, GPs have different vaccine prescription attitude toward their patients and children. These findings should be confirmed in larger cohorts.

Project description:BackgroundFood insecurity and other social determinants of health are increasingly being measured at routine health care visits. Understanding the needs and behaviors of individuals or families who screen positive for food insecurity may inform the types of resources they need. The goal of this research was to identify modifiable characteristics related to endorsement of two food insecurity screener questions to better understand the resources necessary to improve outcomes.MethodsAnalysis was conducted focusing on cross-sectional survey data collected in 2015-2016 from participants (N = 442) living in urban neighborhoods in Ohio with limited access to grocery stores. Food insecurity was assessed by the endorsement of at least one of two items. These were used to categorize participants into two groups: food insecure(N = 252) or food secure (N = 190). Using logistic regression, we estimated the association between several variables and the food insecure classification.ResultsThose that used their own car when shopping for food had lower odds of reporting food insecurity, as did those with affirmative attitudes related to the convenience of shopping for and ease of eating healthy foods. As shopping frequency increased, the odds of food insecurity increased. Food insecurity also increased with experience of a significant life event within the past 12 months. There was an 81% increase in the odds of reporting food insecurity among participants who received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits compared to those not receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.ConclusionsAlong with referrals to SNAP, clinicians can further address screening-identified food insecurity through provision of transportation supports and linkages to other social services while collaborating on community initiatives to promote convenient and easy access to healthy foods. The needs and behaviors associated with screens indicating food insecurity also have implications for impacting other SDH, and thus, health outcomes.

Project description:ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of (very) low food security among Dutch food bank recipients, and to identify potential demographic, lifestyle and nutrition-related factors associated with (very) low food security.Setting11 of 135 Dutch food banks were selected throughout the Netherlands.Participants251 Dutch food bank recipients participated in the study (93 men and 158 women). Inclusion criteria for participation were: (1) at least 18?years of age, (2) sufficiently fluent in Dutch to participate in oral and written interviews, (3) recipient of a Dutch food bank for at least 1?month and (4) collect own food parcel at the food bank. A single member per household was included.Primary outcomeLevel of food security.ResultsThe prevalence of food insecurity was 72.9% (N=183), of which 40.4% (N=74) reported very low food security. Of the very low food secure participants, 56.8% (N=42) reported they were ever hungry but did not eat because they could not afford enough food in the previous 3?months. Adjusted multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that households without children were less likely to experience low food security (OR 0.39 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.88)) and men (OR 0.24 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.51)) were less likely to experience very low food security, while low-educated recipients (OR 5.05 (95% CI 1.37 to 18.61)) were more likely to experience very low food security. Furthermore, recipients with high satisfaction with overall food intake (OR 0.46 (95% CI 0.27 to 0.78)), high perceived healthiness of overall food intake (OR 0.34 (95% CI 0.19 to 0.62)) or high self-efficacy of eating healthy (OR 0.62 (95% CI 0.40 to 0.96)) were less likely to experience very low food security.ConclusionsOur study showed high prevalence rates of food insecurity among Dutch food bank recipients, and identified subgroups at increased risk of food insecurity. More research is urgently needed on the underlying determinants of food insecurity and the effectiveness of food assistance by food banks.

Dataset Information

Identification of food insecurity factors in French-speaking Belgium: a qualitative study.

Publications

Identification of food insecurity factors in French-speaking Belgium: a qualitative study.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets