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      Expenditure, Coping, and Academic Behaviors among Food-Insecure College Students at 10 Higher Education Institutes in the Appalachian and Southeastern Regions

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          ABSTRACT

          Background

          A number of studies have measured college student food insecurity prevalence higher than the national average; however, no multicampus regional study among students at 4-y institutions has been undertaken in the Appalachian and Southeast regions of the United States.

          Objectives

          The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among college students in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, and to determine the association between food-insecurity status and money expenditures, coping strategies, and academic performance among a regional sample of college students.

          Methods

          This regional, cross-sectional, online survey study included 13,642 college students at 10 public universities. Food-insecurity status was measured through the use of the USDA Adult Food Security Survey. The outcomes were associations between food insecurity and behaviors determined with the use of the money expenditure scale (MES), the coping strategy scale (CSS), and the academic progress scale (APS). A forward-selection logistic regression model was used with all variables significant from individual Pearson chi-square and Wilcoxon analyses. The significance criterion α for all tests was 0.05.

          Results

          The prevalence of food insecurity at the universities ranged from 22.4% to 51.8% with an average prevalence of 30.5% for the full sample. From the forward-selection logistic regression model, MES (OR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.40, 1.55), CSS (OR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.21), and APS (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91, 0.99) scores remained significant predictors of food insecurity. Grade point average, academic year, health, race/ethnicity, financial aid, cooking frequency, and health insurance also remained significant predictors of food security status.

          Conclusions

          Food insecurity prevalence was higher than the national average. Food-insecure college students were more likely to display high money expenditures and exhibit coping behaviors, and to have poor academic performance.

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          Most cited references36

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          Food insufficiency and American school-aged children's cognitive, academic, and psychosocial development.

          This study investigates associations between food insufficiency and cognitive, academic, and psychosocial outcomes for US children and teenagers ages 6 to 11 and 12 to 16 years. Data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) were analyzed. Children were classified as food-insufficient if the family respondent reported that his or her family sometimes or often did not get enough food to eat. Regression analyses were conducted to test for associations between food insufficiency and cognitive, academic, and psychosocial measures in general and then within lower-risk and higher-risk groups. Regression coefficients and odds ratios for food insufficiency are reported, adjusted for poverty status and other potential confounding factors. After adjusting for confounding variables, 6- to 11-year-old food-insufficient children had significantly lower arithmetic scores and were more likely to have repeated a grade, have seen a psychologist, and have had difficulty getting along with other children. Food-insufficient teenagers were more likely to have seen a psychologist, have been suspended from school, and have had difficulty getting along with other children. Further analyses divided children into lower-risk and higher-risk groups. The associations between food insufficiency and children's outcomes varied by level of risk. The results demonstrate that negative academic and psychosocial outcomes are associated with family-level food insufficiency and provide support for public health efforts to increase the food security of American families.
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            Mental health context of food insecurity: a representative cohort of families with young children.

            Children from food-insecure families (ie, families that lack access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food) are at risk for developmental problems. Food insecurity disproportionately occurs among low-socioeconomic status (SES) and low-income families; however, interventions that supplement families' income or diet have not eradicated food insecurity. This may be because food insecurity is also related to nonfinancial factors such as the presence of maternal mental health problems. To clarify whether addressing mothers' mental health problems may be a promising strategy for reducing the burden of food insecurity, we tested the hypothesis that low-SES families are especially vulnerable to food insecurity when the mother experiences depression, alcohol or drug abuse, psychosis spectrum disorder, or domestic violence. We used data from a nationally representative cohort of 1116 British families (the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Study). Food insecurity, family SES, maternal mental health and exposure to domestic violence, and children's behavioral outcomes were measured by using validated methods. Overall, 9.7% of study families were food-insecure. Among low-SES families, controlling for income variation, food insecurity co-occurred with maternal depression (odds ratio [OR]: 2.82 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.62-4.93]), psychosis spectrum disorder (OR: 4.01 [95% CI: 2.03-7.94]), and domestic violence (OR: 2.36 [95% CI: 1.18-4.73]). In addition, food insecurity predicted elevated rates of children's behavior problems. Among families with young children, food insecurity is frequent, particularly when the mother experiences mental health problems. This suggests that interventions that improve women's mental health may also contribute to decreasing the burden of food insecurity and its impact on the next generation.
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              Food security, poverty, and human development in the United States.

              Access to food is essential to optimal development and function in children and adults. Food security, food insecurity, and hunger have been defined and a U.S. Food Security Scale was developed and is administered annually by the Census Bureau in its Current Population Survey. The eight child-referenced items now make up a Children's Food Security Scale. This review summarizes the data on household and children's food insecurity and its relationship with children's health and development and with mothers' depressive symptoms. It is demonstrable that food insecurity is a prevalent risk to the growth, health, cognitive, and behavioral potential of America's poor and near-poor children. Infants and toddlers in particular are at risk from food insecurity even at the lowest levels of severity, and the data indicate an "invisible epidemic" of a serious condition. Food insecurity is readily measured and rapidly remediable through policy changes, which a country like the United States, unlike many others, is fully capable of implementing. The food and distribution resources exist; the only constraint is political will.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Curr Dev Nutr
                Curr Dev Nutr
                cdn
                Current Developments in Nutrition
                Oxford University Press
                2475-2991
                24 April 2019
                June 2019
                24 April 2019
                : 3
                : 6
                : nzz058
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
                [2 ]Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management, Appalachian State University, Leon Levine School of Health Sciences, Boone, NC 28607, USA
                [3 ]Department of Nutrition, Health, and Human Performance, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA
                [4 ]University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government, USA
                [5 ]Department of Nutrition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
                [6 ]College of Education and Human Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA
                [7 ]School of Health Sciences, Nutrition and Dietetics Program, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723, USA
                [8 ]College of Allied Health Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA
                [9 ]Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC 28372, USA
                [10 ]Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA
                Author notes
                Address correspondence to MDO (e-mail: Melissa.olfert@ 123456mail.wvu.edu )
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5046-4757
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6100-9744
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5786-3179
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9381-0245
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9017-7499
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4792-0704
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6434-2913
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1488-5463
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6724-1130
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6686-3891
                Article
                nzz058
                10.1093/cdn/nzz058
                6536735
                31149651
                1acd2243-9b41-48d7-b6ba-19fafc8d8cc2
                Copyright © American Society for Nutrition 2019.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@ 123456oup.com

                History
                : 23 April 2019
                : 06 March 2019
                : 16 April 2019
                Page count
                Pages: 10
                Funding
                Funded by: West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
                Award ID: WVA00689
                Award ID: WVA00721
                Funded by: National Institute of General Medical Sciences 10.13039/100000057
                Award ID: GM081741
                Funded by: NIH 10.13039/100000002
                Award ID: 5U54GM115428
                Categories
                Original Research
                Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health

                college students,food insecurity,money spending,coping strategies,academic performance

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