Homeownership status and risk of food insecurity: examining the role of housing debt, housing expenditure and housing asset using a cross-sectional population-based survey of Canadian households

Andrée-Anne Fafard St-Germain,Valerie Tarasuk

doi:10.1186/s12939-019-1114-z

Andrée-Anne Fafard St-Germain, Valerie Tarasuk

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1114-z

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Abstract

BackgroundHousehold food insecurity is a potent marker of material deprivation with adverse health consequences. Studies have repeatedly found a strong, independent relationship between owning a home and lower vulnerability to food insecurity in Canada and elsewhere, but the reasons for this relationship are poorly understood. We aimed to examine the influence of housing asset, housing debt and housing expenditure on the relationship between homeownership status and food insecurity in Canada.MethodsCross-sectional data on food insecurity, housing tenure and expenditures, home value, income and sociodemographic characteristics were derived from the 2010 Survey of Household Spending, a population-based survey. Multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to estimate odds ratios of food insecurity among households of all incomes (n = 10,815) and those with lower incomes (n = 5547).ResultsFood insecurity prevalence was highest among market renters (28.5%), followed by homeowners with a mortgage (11.6%) and mortgage-free homeowners (4.3%). Homeowners with a mortgage (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.39–0.68) and those without a mortgage (OR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.16–0.35) had substantially lower adjusted odds of food insecurity than market renters, and accounting for the burden of housing cost had minimal impact on the association. Mortgage-free homeowners had lower adjusted odds ratios of food insecurity compared to homeowners with a mortgage, but differences in the burden of housing cost fully accounted for the association. When stratifying homeowners based on presence of mortgage and housing asset level, the adjusted odds ratios of food insecurity for market renters were not significant when compared to mortgage holders with low housing asset. Mortgage-free owners with higher housing asset were least vulnerable to food insecurity (adjusted OR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.11–0.27).ConclusionsSubstantial disparities in food insecurity exist between households with different homeownership status and housing asset level. Housing policies that support homeownership while ensuring affordable mortgages may be important to mitigate food insecurity, but policy actions are required to address renters’ high vulnerability to food insecurity.

Highlights

Household food insecurity is a potent marker of material deprivation with adverse health consequences
When stratifying homeowners based on housing asset level, the prevalence was highest among mortgage holders with low housing asset (25.2%) and lowest among mortgagefree owners with higher housing asset (2.9%), while the prevalence was mid-range for mortgage holders with higher housing asset (10.2%) and mortgage-free owners with low housing asset (13.6%)
The prevalence estimates increased slightly when focusing on lower-income households, but the pattern across homeownership status and housing asset level was similar to that observed for the whole sample (Fig. 1b)

Summary

Introduction

Household food insecurity is a potent marker of material deprivation with adverse health consequences. Extensive evidence suggests that lacking adequate or secure access to food due to financial constraints is an important marker of material deprivation that contributes to health inequalities across the life cycle independently of other social determinants of health [4,5,6,7,8,9] This highlights the need to understand the different economic determinants of food insecurity to inform the development of effective policy interventions. Recent studies suggest food insecurity is sensitive to federal and provincial income security programs, including universal old-age pension [10], child benefits [11, 12], and social assistance benefits [13, 14]. These findings are consistent with a large body of research identifying household income has a robust predictor of food insecurity in Canada [12, 14,15,16,17,18,19,20] and elsewhere [21,22,23,24,25,26]

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