title: Food Insecurity Is Associated with Subjective Well-Being among Individuals from 138 Countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll.
abstract: Background:Food insecurity is an aspect of living conditions that is particularly important for quality of life, health, and subjective well-being. The implementation of the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale in 147 countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll provided an unprecedented opportunity to understand the association of food insecurity with subjective well-being.Objective:We examined how food insecurity relates with measures of living conditions and how food insecurity and other living conditions relate with physical health and, in turn, subjective well-being.Methods:Data were collected from individuals aged ≥15 y by telephone in 38 countries and via face-to-face interviews in 111 others. The available sample was 132,618 (138 countries) and 122,137 (137 countries) for the daily experience and life evaluation indexes of subjective well-being, respectively. Daily experience was a continuous measure and life evaluation was categorized into thriving, struggling, and suffering. We estimated 6 linear or logistic regression models for each index controlling for country as a fixed effect.Results:Food insecurity was associated with the other 3 measures of living conditions: household income, shelter and housing, and employment. Food insecurity explained poor physical health and lower subjective well-being beyond other measures of living conditions. Instrumental and emotional support was associated with higher subjective well-being. The associations of food insecurity with subjective well-being were larger than with other explanatory variables. Food insecurity was associated with subjective well-being within each of the 4 World Bank income classes of countries, with a larger magnitude of differences for the higher-income classes.Conclusions:Food insecurity was strongly and negatively associated with subjective well-being in a large global sample of individuals aged ≥15 y. These results demonstrate the consistency of goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which has targeted 2030 to ensure food security for all people, year-round, with other goals to reduce food insecurity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC; and efrongillo@sc.edu.
authors.forename: Edward A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8265-9815
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Frongillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC; and.
authors.forename: Hoa T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Alisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coleman-Jensen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: food insecurity; living conditions; quality of life; social support; subjective well-being