Implications of food insecurity on global health policy and nursing practice.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose is to discuss the concept of food insecurity (FI) and its impact on current global health policy and nursing practice.


METHODS
Food insecurity.


METHODS
Literature review.


RESULTS
FI means a nonsustainable food system that interferes with optimal self-reliance and social justice. Individuals experiencing FI lack nutritionally adequate and safe foods in their diet. Resources play a significant role in FI by affecting whether or not people obtain culturally, socially acceptable food through regular marketplace sources as opposed to severe coping strategies, such as emergency food sources, scavenging, and stealing. Persons who are living in poverty, female heads of household, single parents, people living with many siblings, landless people, migrants, immigrants, and those living in certain geographical regions constitute populations at risk and most vulnerable to FI.


CONCLUSIONS
FI influences economics through annual losses of gross domestic product due to reduced human productivity. FI affects individuals and households and is largely an unobservable condition, making data collection and analysis challenging. Policy and research have focused on macronutrient sufficiency and deprivation, making it difficult to draw attention and research dollars to FI.


CONCLUSIONS
Persons experiencing FI exhibit clinical signs such as less healthy diets, poor health status, poor diabetes and chronic disease management, and impaired cognitive function. Nurses can recognize the physical, psychosocial, and personal consequences that those with FI face and manage daily.
Kregg-Byers
Claudia M
CM
Eta, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. clk30@pitt.edu
Schlenk
Elizabeth A
EA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D011203:Poverty; D012935:Social Justice; D013217:Starvation / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D035862:Vulnerable Populations