title: Food insecurity and food supplies in Latino households with young children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between food insecurity and food supplies in Latino households.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey, conducted February to May 2001.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six California counties.
  
  
  METHODS
  Convenience sampling was used to recruit 274 low-income Latino families with preschool children from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Head Start, and other community-based organizations. Complete data were available for 256 families.
  
  
  METHODS
  Food security, household food scores.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pearson correlations, Kruskal-Wallis test, and logistics regression. Significance level at P <.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling for maternal education, food insecurity over the past 3 months was associated with lower household food supplies: dairy, r = -.18, P <.01; fruit, r = -.36, P <.001; grains, r = -.27, P <.0001; meats, r = -.22, P <.001; snack foods, r = -.23, P <.001; and vegetables, r = -.29, P <.001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Latino households, greater food insecurity is associated with a lower variety of most foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Future research in Latino households should explore the effects of seasonal food insecurity and household food shortages on food intake of individual household members, especially young children.
authors.affiliation: University of California Cooperative Extension, Tulare County, Tulare, California, USA. llkaiser@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Lucia L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Melgar-Quiñonez
authors.forename: Marilyn S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: Mary Lavender
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Cathi L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lamp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services; D005523:Food Supply; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007843:Latin America / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty