ASSOCIATION OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD INSECURITY, NUTRITIONAL STATUS, ENERGY AND NUTRIENTS INTAKE IN FEMALE‐HEADED HOUSEHOLDS FROM CULIACAN, SINALOA, MEXICO

Abstract

Food insecurity is a problem that affects a large number of female‐headed households. Balanced diet is a key factor for good health and inadequate intake of calories and macronutrients significantly contributes to malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies, obesity and related chronic diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between food insecurity level (FIL), nutritional status and energy and macronutrients intake in female‐headed households from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. From a 2400 poor female‐headed household population that receives food assistance, 319 were randomly selected to make a representative sample. FIL was measured using the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA). Nutritional status by the World Health Organization criteria using the BMI as reference and the energy and macronutrient consumption by a 24‐hour dietary recall and food frequency questionnaire. Our results demonstrated that 96.5% of the women had some degree of food insecurity (41.08%, 35.03% and 19.75% has mild, moderate and severe FIL respectively). 50.7% were overweight, 32.2% obese, 16.56% normal weight and none of them were underweight. There was no relationship between FIL and waist circumference, but it was a positive association between FIL and waist‐hip‐ratio (p=0.016), which is well known to be associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases. Energy intake was 60% more than RDA. Carbohydrates, proteins and lipids consumption were higher than the RDA (31, 20 and 140% respectably). Female headed households with FIL showed some parameters associated with malnutrition and that could be a risk factor to develop metabolic diseases.