Syndemic Water and Food Insecurity: Impacts on the Dual Burden of Disease in Galapagos

Abstract

Food insecurity is a well-known risk factor for a number of health conditions, including stunting, overweight, and poor mental health. However, less is known about the pathways through which food insecurity shapes health at the individual and household levels and even less about how food insecurity overlaps with poor water quality and access to impact physical and mental health. In this chapter, we describe the individual and joint effects of food and water insecurity on health and argue that limitations in the water and food environments interact synergistically as a syndemic contributing to co-occurring overweight and cardiometabolic disease alongside persistent infectious disease and undernutrition. Such research is needed to understand the social and biological pathways linking the experiences of food and water insecurity to the dual burden of disease in low- and middle-income country settings like the Galapagos.