AH5005 Project Presentation

Caroline Thiede
04/24/20
 Background
● In 2018, the USDA estimated that 1 in 9 Americans, or 37 million, were food insecure
● Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active,
healthy life
● In the US, there are many government funded or community-based programs aimed to
assist individuals and families impacted by food insecurity such as food pantries

While these programs are intended to put food on the tables of those in need, the
overall diet quality of these people may fall short
Previous and recent research demonstrates an association between food insecurity
and lower diet quality in American adults and children
Study Aims

● To further investigate whether lower food Food

security is associated with poorer diet insecurity
quality

● We hypothesized that students with food

insecurity will be more likely to have poor
diet quality

Diet quality
Study Design
● Parent study was performed by the University
of Connecticut and involved Sunset Ridge
● Eligibility: participants enrolled at the middle
Middle School in East Hartford, Connecticut,
school were invited to take part in the survey
approved by the UConn IRB.
in a computer lab on the premises during
class time
● Researchers administered a “web-based
liking survey” during class time to the
● Potential confounders for this research
students
included age and gender, which was
self-reported by the participants within the
● Only the responses regarding liking of foods
survey
and beverages and perceived food security
was included.
 Within the survey, students were asked 3
questions regarding their perceived level of food
insecurity:

Question 1: “I was hungry, but didn’t eat because

there wasn’t enough food at home.”
Question 2: “I ate less than I wanted to because
there wasn’t enough food at home.”

Determinant: Question 3: “I felt worried that our food at home

would run out before we could get more.”

Food Security The students had three options to choose from:

“Never,” “Sometimes,” or “Often.”

If a participant answered either “sometimes” or

“often” to any or all of the questions, they were
categorized as “food insecure”
If a participant answered “never” to any or all of
the questions, they were categorized as “food
secure”
Students were asked multiple questions about
their individual liking or disliking of certain
foods/food components and beverages

Each “item” was assigned a diet score from -100

to +100

“Unhealthy foods/choices” were assigned a

negative value and “Healthy foods/choices” were
assigned a positive value Outcome:
There were 27 items total and they were then
coded into weighted scores to give a total diet Diet Quality
quality score

If a participants total diet score was below zero

(negative) it was categorized as “poor” diet
quality
If a participants total diet score was above zero
(positive) it was categorized as “good” diet
quality
 Confounders

Age
Ages 11-14 were categorized as these
Gender
same numbers Female was categorized as 1
Participants that chose “other” were Male was categorized as 2
categorized as 99 Other was categorized as 3
 Pearson’s χ2 (chi-squared) test was used to
assess whether the potential confounders (age,
gender) are associated with food security

Statistical
Analysis
Logistic Regression Model was used to examine
the probability of the outcome (good diet quality)
occurring as a function of other variables (food
security, gender, and age)
 Could older age
(12,13)
and male gender
Model-Building Strategy an effect on the
relationship betw
have

een
food security and
diet
quality?

Looking at the Pearson and Multiple deviances/outliers Inclusion of confounders in Model fit statistics for
deviance residuals, there shown in the Chi-square the adjusted model did not Intercept and Covariates
were multiple pts w/ res> and deviance deletion change the estimate of model were not smaller than
|-2| and some res> |--3| differences association by at least 10% for Intercept Only model

Run crude There were no significant differences observed between No covariates

regression the inclusion of the confounding variables in the adjusted included in
model adjusted model
Construction Exclusions:
of Analytic ●
●
Any missing data
Participants that answered “other” for
age or gender
Sample ● Any participants that answered 14 for
age due to small cell size

n=310 recruited
n=28 excluded
n=281 included in analytic sample
Table 1: Characteristics of middle school students
in relation to food security

Food security did not

differ among age or
gender
Table 2: Results of Crude and Adjusted Regression
Models and N% of diet quality in relation to food
security, age, and gender

88% of food insecure pts

had poor diet quality and
87% of food secure pts
had poor diet quality

After adjusting for age

and gender, it was
determined that food
security was not
associated with diet
quality
 Strengths:
Strengths and ● Found that the majority of this sample
population had poor diet quality, could
Limitations be useful for future studies
● Found that majority of this sample

of Study were food secure

Limitations:
● Self-reported data based on
participant’s liking of certain foods --
subjective, anonymous
● Small sample size, had to exclude 1
age group from analysis
 Diet quality and food security of middle
school-aged students should continue to be
evaluated

Implications
&
Conclusions
While there was no association in this case, this
is probably due to the fact that only 35 pts total
had good diet quality
Survey acts as a unique tool and should be
utilized in more schools to gather more data and
encourage better choices in this population
Acknowledgments ● University of Connecticut, USDA Hatch, SNAP-Ed

● East Hartford Public Schools & Sunset Ridge Middle

School

● Dr. Valerie Duffy

● Rachel Hildrey

● Dr. Molly Waring