Introduction

Food insecurity, the uncertainty or inability to acquire sufficient food because of financial constraints [1], is a growing population health concern in many high-income countries for two reasons. First, the magnitude of the problem is staggering. In 2012, 12.6% of Canadian households were affected by some degree of food insecurity; this is the highest rate observed since national monitoring began in 2007 [1]. Second, a vast literature has demonstrated the numerous negative health consequences associated with food insecurity [2]. Among adults, these include increased risk of diabetes [3,4], hypertension [4], dyslipidemia [5], cardiovascular disease [6], depression [7,8], poor sleep [9], and iron deficiency [10]. In addition, food insecurity is associated with poorer disease management and indications of greater disease severity across a broad spectrum of communicable and non-communicable diseases [11–20]. As might be expected, food insecurity is also associated with higher health care costs in Canada [20,21].

The health consequences associated with food insecurity, many of which are chronic in nature, are also associated with higher mortality rates. As a consequence, given the myriad of chronic health conditions associated with food insecurity and the greater likelihood of poor disease management in this context, one would anticipate that food insecurity is also associated with increased risk of mortality. To date this association has only been documented among specific subgroups of HIV-positive adults [13,22].

The objective of this study is to ascertain the association between food insecurity and all-cause mortality for a population-based sample of adults. Addressing this objective hasn’t been possible before due to the lack of information on mortality that can be matched with food insecurity information. To overcome this limitation and address the objective of this study, we use a unique administrative data set, which contains information on all users of medical care in Ontario, Canada, including records of death, and match those individuals who were also interviewed in the Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS).

Methods

Results

Concentrating on the larger sample where we use all observations, including those with missing income, the mean age of participants in the study sample was 51.3 years (standard deviation ± 18.7), 54.9% were female, the majority of the sample had completed post-secondary education (56.2%), 77.3% were homeowners, and the mean number of children was 0.4 (standard deviation ± 0.9) and adults was 2.0 (standard deviation ± 0.9) (Table 1, top panel). With respect to food insecurity status, 3.4% lived in marginally, 4.4% in moderately, and 3.2% in severely food insecure households. When stratified by household food insecurity status, with the exception of number of children when household income is used, the participants differed significantly in age, education level, home ownership, household composition, and household income (Table 1). With respect to mortality, in our sample with income quintiles, 7,810 (8.6%) of the sample had died after the survey was taken and 3,757 (4.2%) had died within four years of the survey.

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Table 1. Characteristics and mortality status by household food insecurity status.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202642.t001

In the bottom panel of Table 1, the sample is composed of only households which reported incomes. This results in a 23.5% decline in the sample, from 90,368 observations to 69,096 observations. The average values of the variables in the bottom panel are similar to those in the top panel. In particular, the mortality rates are similar; 8.2% had died after the survey was taken and 3.9%had died within four years of the survey.

As seen in Table 2, the probability of mortality, both within four years of interview and at any point, is lower for food insecure individuals when no other covariates are included. After controlling for age, gender, and other factors, those who are marginally food insecure are 28% more likely to die at any point after the interview than those who are food secure and the results for moderately food insecure and severely food insecure are 49% and 160%. When mortality within four years of the interview is considered, the results are, respectively, 19%, 65%, and 131%. (With the exception of marginally food insecure, each of these is statistically significant.) When the sample is truncated to only include those reporting income and then using income rather than the quintile of neighborhood income (Table 3), the results are similar to Table 2.

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Table 2. Results of regression model predicting mortality, with neighborhood income measures (N = 90,368).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202642.t002

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Table 3. Results of regression model predicting mortality, with household income (N = 69,096).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202642.t003

Discussion

Our study showed that household food insecurity status has a strong association with mortality for adults in Ontario, independent of other well-established determinants of mortality. Our multivariate results demonstrate that along with the previously demonstrated wide array of negative health outcomes [2], and the higher health care costs associated with food insecurity [20,21], those who are food insecure are more likely to die than those who are food secure. The fact that mortality risk follows a food insecurity severity gradient lends further credibility to the overall food insecurity/mortality relationship.

Despite the mounting evidence of the negative outcomes associated with food insecurity, Canada has yet to make the reduction of household food insecurity a priority for policy intervention. While there are ad hoc community-based food charities and other food programs, these lack the capacity to effectively alter household food insecurity [29–32]. In Canada, as elsewhere, problems of food insecurity are tightly linked to household incomes and other measures of financial resources [1]. Policy reforms that have improved the adequacy and security of incomes of lower income, working-aged adults and their families have been shown to yield marked reductions in food insecurity [33–35]. Consistent with these findings, the government of Ontario recently implemented a three-year pilot study to assess the impact of a guaranteed minimum income for working aged adults on a variety of indicators of health and well-being, including food security [36]. Our findings highlight the importance of continued support for policy interventions to reduce food insecurity and, potentially, mortality.

One other path to reducing food insecurity is found in the United States which has had a large-scale food assistance program–the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)–for over 50 years [37]. Multiple studies have demonstrated its success in alleviating food insofar as, after controlling for non-random selection into the program, participants are substantially less likely to be food insecure. (Recent work includes, e.g., [38,39].) With respect to Canada, we estimate that adding a program like SNAP to Canada’s existing array of social programs could result in as much as a 16% decline in food insecurity [40]. Whether the introduction of a publicly-funded food assistance program would have any advantage over measures to strengthen Canada’s existing fabric of income support programs is questionable, but this finding further highlights the potential to reduce household food insecurity, and therefore potentially mortality, through interventions that improve household resources.

This is the first paper that has examined the relationship between food insecurity and mortality in a population-representative sample, with a standard food security measure. There are four limitations to this paper that can be addressed in future research. First, as the severity of food insecurity increases so too does its association with mortality. More research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms through which this occurs. Second, it isn’t clear as to whether certain causes of death are disproportionately related to food insecurity. We were limited to an examination of all-cause mortality because we lacked data on specific causes of mortality. Third, we only have information on the mortality of Ontario residents, and the relationship between food insecurity status and mortality might differ in the other provinces and territories in Canada. Linking CCHS data to health administrative data nationally would be useful to more fully examine this issue and others. Fourth, we have not made causal claims regarding the association between food insecurity and mortality and our final recommendation is to consider causal issues. This is part of a broader call to address causal issues in the food insecurity, health nexus [2].

Our finding that food insecurity has a robust association with mortality among adults in Ontario highlights the seriousness of long-observed associations between food insecurity and various negative health outcomes and the importance of policy and programmatic interventions to reduce both the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity.

Supporting information