1. Food insecurity and low income in an English inner city
- Author
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Richard S. Tingay, Rebecca Wong, Pei Fen Teoh, Stephen Tang, Neil C.‐W. Tan, Martin Gulliford, and Chuan Jin Tan
- Subjects
Low income ,Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,Urban Population ,Food Supply ,Inner city ,Negatively associated ,Environmental health ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,London ,Humans ,Minimum wage ,Poverty ,Aged ,Demography ,Aged, 80 and over ,Food security ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Food frequency questionnaire ,General Medicine ,Feeding Behavior ,Middle Aged ,Food insecurity ,Geography ,Social Class ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Household income ,Female - Abstract
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.
- Published
- 2003