Food insecurity and low income in an English inner city.
BACKGROUND
Low incomes may not provide the minimum requirements for healthy living. We evaluated experiences of food insecurity in relation to income in inner London.


METHODS
Subjects attending 10 general medical practices completed a short self-administered questionnaire, including the short form Household Food Security Scale and a short food frequency questionnaire.


RESULTS
Responses were obtained from 431/495 (87 per cent) subjects. Overall 87 (20 per cent) of subjects were classified as food insecure. Food insecurity was negatively associated with household income (p = 0.004). University-educated subjects (8 per cent) were less often food insecure than all others (26 per cent). Subjects who were food insecure were less likely to report eating fruit daily (food secure 48 per cent, food insecure 33 per cent, p = 0.017) or vegetables or salads daily (food secure 56 per cent, food insecure 34 per cent, p = 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
Experiences of food insecurity may be common in households with incomes at the level of the UK national minimum wage or lower.
Tingay
Richard S
RS
Department of Public Health Sciences, King's College London, Capital House, 42 Weston Street, London SE1 3QD.
Tan
Chuan Jin
CJ
Tan
Neil C W
NC
Tang
Stephen
S
Teoh
Pei Fen
PF
Wong
Rebecca
R
Gulliford
Martin C
MC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003710:Demography; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*