The Association Between Food Security Status Depression and Anxiety Among African Immigrants

Objectives: African immigrants independently have an increased risk for food insecurity, depression, and anxiety. Prior evidence among non-African immigrants suggests a relationship between food security status, depression, and anxiety, however, this evidence is lacking among African immigrants, a group whose population has quadrupled in recent years. This study aims to assess the relationship between immigrants' food insecurity, depression, and anxiety outcomes, among African immigrants. Methods: After consenting, study participants completed questionnaires that assessed sociodemographic variables, food security status (using the USDA six-item food security survey module), depression (using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and anxiety (using Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)). Higher scores on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 indicate higher symptom severity. Similarly, higher scores on the food security scale indicate worse food insecurity. In addition to descriptive statistics, association analyses were conducted with Fisher's exact test and logistic regression. Results: Preliminary findings are based on n=42. Participants were 66% male with a mean age of 39 ±9.9 years; most of them had full-time jobs (73%) and lived in the US >10 years (71%). Three (7%) participants were food secure, and the rest (93%) were food insecure. Depression and anxiety symptoms were reported by 9% and 19% respectively. Although food insecure individuals were 1.06 times more likely to report depression (OR = 0.0645, p = 0.085) and 1.21 times more likely to report anxiety (OR = 0.21, p = 0.299) compared to food secure individuals, these associations were not statistically significant. Adjusting for covariates such as age, gender, and trauma did not change significance. Conclusions: Most participants were food insecure regardless of their socioeconomic status and time in the US. Although not significant, food insecurity increased the risk for depression and anxiety among participants, and the small sample size could explain the lack of significant association between food insecurity, depression, and anxiety. Funding Sources: N/A.