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Women from food insecure households have lower prevalence of overweight in rural Mexico
Author(s) -
MejiaRodriguez Fabiola,
Mendez GomezHuran Ignacio,
DominguezIslas Clara Penelope,
Neufeld Lynnette M
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.737.19
Subject(s) - overweight , food security , environmental health , food insecurity , logistic regression , rural area , medicine , demography , obesity , geography , agriculture , archaeology , pathology , sociology
Objective to evaluate the relationship between household food security (FS) and the prevalence of overweight in poor women from rural Mexico. Methods Data were collected as part of a large survey conducted in small rural communities in 9 states in Mexico. A 14 item FS questionnaire was applied to 5,399 non‐pregnant women for whom height and weight measurements were available. For the present analysis households were classified as food secure or food insecure and the relationship with overweight (BMI ¡Ý 25.0) examined using logistic regression after adjustment for age. Results A total of 1,177 households (21.8%) were classified as food secure and 4,222 (78.2%) as food insecure. The prevalence of overweight was not significantly different (p=0.38) in unadjusted analysis between women from food secure (51.4%) and food insecure (49.95%) household. After adjustment for age, women from insecure households were less likely than those food secure households from to be overweight (OR 0.84, 95%CI 0.73‐0.95, p<0.01) Conclusions Unlike what has been reported in some developed countries, food insecurity in poor women from rural Mexico is associated with a lower risk of overweight. Further studies are required to understand how patterns in dietary intake and/or activity may be associated with this difference. Supported by program evaluation funds from the Oportunidades.