Food Insecurity and Pediatric Obesity: a Double Whammy in the Era of COVID-19
- PDF / 334,519 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 107 Downloads / 212 Views
CHILDHOOD OBESITY (A KELLY AND C FOX, SECTION EDITOR)
Food Insecurity and Pediatric Obesity: a Double Whammy in the Era of COVID-19 June M. Tester 1,2
&
Lisa G. Rosas 3 & Cindy W. Leung 4
Accepted: 7 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review This review examines the current evidence about the ways in which food insecurity relates to obesity in children and adolescents, examining diet and diet-related behaviors, and taking into consideration the role of stress. Recent Findings While living with food insecurity impacts stress and diet-related behaviors in children and adolescents, it is not clear whether food insecurity is associated with obesity above and beyond the influence of poverty. However, strategies to mitigate food insecurity and obesity are inherently connected, and recent examples from clinical practice (e.g., screening for food insecurity among patients) and advocacy (e.g., policy considerations regarding federal food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) are discussed. Summary Food insecurity and obesity coexist in low-income children and adolescents in the USA. The COVID-19 pandemic exerts disproportionate burden on low-income children and families, magnifying their vulnerability to both food insecurity and pediatric obesity. Keywords Food insecurity . Pediatric obesity . Screening . COVID
Introduction Children who grow up in households with fewer financial resources have higher levels of obesity than children who grow up with more financial resources [1–4]. Low-income children are also more likely to be living in households experiencing food insecurity, [5] defined as “having inadequate access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy This article is part of the Topical Collection on Childhood Obesity * June M. Tester [email protected] 1
Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, 744 52nd Street, Oakland 94609, CA, USA
2
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th Street, 4th Floor Box 0110, San Francisco, CA, USA
3
Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
4
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
lifestyle” [6]. Obesity and food insecurity coexist in many children and adolescents, and this seemingly paradoxical relationship has been increasingly described in the medical literature since a provocative medical case report published a quarter of a century ago [7]. Some of this literature has focused on determining whether food insecurity causes obesity among children and adolescents [8, 9]. Regardless of whether the relationship is causal, food insecurity and obesity commonly co-occur, and each condition leads to significant adverse health and social consequences. Addressing obesity and food insecurity as common
Data Loading...
