Food insufficiency and the physical and mental health of low-income women

Poor women with children are disproportionately represented among the fi,od insufficient. Recent research has linked food insufficiency with dietary d eficiencies, but further research linking this problem to health and mental health problems is needed to inform health and social policy. We analyzed the relationship between food insufficiency and physical and mental health in a random sample of 724 single women who were welfare recipients in Febru ary, 1997. Food insufficiency was significantly associated with poor or fai r self-rated health and physical limitations, and with respondents' meeting DSM-III-R criteria for recent major depression. Although the cross-section al design of this study precludes causal inference, these findings add to a growing body of evidence that food insufficiency is associated with seriou s adverse physical and mental health consequences. (C) 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.