A COMPARISON OF THE NUTRITIONAL-STATUS AND FOOD SECURITY OF DRUG-USING AND NON-DRUG-USING HISPANIC WOMEN IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

This study compared food insecurity, nutritional status (as measured t hrough anthropometry and dietary intake), and food preparation pattern s of low-income Puerto Rican female out-of-treatment drug users with t hat of low-income Puerto Rican women who reported no drug use. A conve nience sample of 41 drug users was compared with 41 age-matched non-dr ug-users from inner-city Hartford, Connecticut. A culturally appropria te food frequency questionnaire was administered and anthropometric me asurements were taken. The findings suggest a high degree of poverty a mong all study participants, but in particular among drug users. Drug users were more likely than the controls to be food insecure (P < 0.05 ) and to he exposed to increasingly severe food sufficiency problems. The daily frequency of consumption of vegetables was lower (P := 0.03) for drug users than non-drug-users. Conversely, the frequency of cons umption for sweets/desserts was significantly higher for drug users th an the controls (P= 0.0001). Drug users, who were classified as food i nsecure were less likely to consume vegetables (P = 0.004) and fish (P = 0.03) than were controls who were food insecure. When comparing dru g users with controls, the former group reported consuming fewer meals during a usual week than the latter group (P < 0.0001). Drug users we re more likely to fry foods (P = 0.02) while the controls were more li kely to bake (P = 0.005), boil (P = 0.02), and steam (P = 0.002) foods . All anthropometric measurements, except for height, were significant ly lower for drug users. The results show that drug users generally ma intain poorer nutritional status than non-drug-users. Nutrition interv entions as part of drug treatment are needed. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc .