Food insecurity among refugee families in East London: results of a pilot assessment

OBJECTIVE: To identify child hunger and examine its association with family factors, receipt of benefits, housing conditions and social support among recently arrived refugee families with young children. DESIGN: Structured and semi-structured questionnaire administered to a service-based, purposive sample of caregivers. SETTING: East London, United Kingdom. SUBJECTS: Thirty households with children <5 years old, resident in the UK for <2 years. RESULTS: All households sampled were food-insecure, and 60% of index children were experiencing hunger as defined on the Radimer/Cornell scale. Child hunger was significantly associated with recent arrival, marginally significantly associated with receipt of fewer benefits and younger parenthood, and not associated with maternal education or self-efficacy score, household size or composition, or measures of social support. CONCLUSIONS: A community-based, participatory approach for rapid assessment of the prevalence, extent and causes of child hunger among newly arrived asylum seekers recently arrived in Britain is feasible, and preliminary results suggest a programmatic need for a broader, population-based assessment of food insecurity in this rapidly growing population group.