A Study of Domestic Food Insecurity on Family Health Status

Food security is an evolutionary concept being used over time which finally encompassed overall access of all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. Eventually the concept has been expanded to different level of type of food security such as household food insecurity, individual hunger and child hunger through different measurements. Household food insecurity issues currently become a main issue parallel with malnutrition studies. Literatures from Scopus, Pubmed and Medline were carried out to gather information about global food insecurity as well as reports, in particular about the association of malnutrition and food insecurity at household level. Most studies showed that household food insecurity is significantly associated with poverty and gave impacts on malnutrition. It has been considered as a universal indicator of measuring hunger, not only at national level but within the household. However, most studies were implemented among low income population. Debate also has been highlighted that household food insecurity may exist among higher income populations and can affect the nutritional status of children and mothers in different ways depending on the context. This review article also has made an attempt to discuss various dimensions of the concept and measurements of household food insecurity and its impact on dietary intake and nutritional status of children and mothers from different backgrounds. Surprisingly, more food insecure women had abdominal obesity problem than food secure women. Cheap prices of energy-dense foods and financial constraint might encourage overconsumption of an energy-rich but low quality diet and led to weight gain among individuals in poor communities. Malnutrition is an indicator of either over nutrition or under nutrition. It is a global and worldwide problem, but concern should be emphasized at household level especially among vulnerable groups such as elderly, children and women. On the other hand, concept and measurement of food insecurity should be taken into account especially at household level.