A new study shows that children who come from Ontario homes with food insecurity have a higher prevalence of outpatient visits for mental health disorders or substance use problems.
The study was detailed in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ),
The report was authored by Kelly K. Anderson, Kristin K. Clemens, Britney Le, Lixia Zhang, Jinette Comeau, Valerie Tarasuk and Salimah Z. Shariff, who represent physicians and researchers associated with the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University and ICES (Institute for Clinical Evaluative Studies.
The authors wrote that "food insecurity is a serious public health problem and is linked to the mental health of children and adolescents; however, its relationship with mental health service use is unknown."
The authors added that the study was done to estimate the association between food insecurity and the use of health services "for mental or substance use disorders among children and adolescents in Ontario."
Along with showing a 55 per cent higher prevalence of outpatient visits, the study also showed that Ontario children and adolescents also had a 74 per cent higher prevalence of past-year acute care visits, defined as an emergency department visit or hospitalization for a mental or substance use disorder.
The study, using OHIP data and other sources, tracked the health of more than 32,000 Ontario children and adolescents (1-17 years) where roughly 16 per cent of that group was identified as living in food-insecure households.
Household food insecurity data came from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), said the CMAJ study.
The study said for the children from food insecure homes who presented with mental health disorders the most common service contacts were for neurodevelopmental disorders (prevalence 4.1 per cent to 9.5 per cent); mood or anxiety disorders (prevalence 3.2 per cent to 5 per cent); followed by social problems (1.1 to 1.4 per cent) and other mental disorders (1.2 to 2 per cent). The study said contacts for psychotic disorders, substance use disorders and deliberate self-harm were uncommon.
"Children and adolescents living in food-insecure households in Ontario had a higher prevalence of past-year health service contacts for mental or substance use disorders, and this was not fully accounted for by key confounding factors, such as low household income, single-parent family, number of children in the household or maternal mental or substance use disorders,” the authors wrote. “We also found some evidence that contact with services for a mental or substance use disorder increased with increasing severity of household food insecurity."
The report also stated the findings were not “generalizable” to people living in First Nations communities or remote areas “where food insecurity is particularly prevalent.”
The findings, the authors state, show the connection between food insecurity and mental health disorders and substance use disorders, and offers evidence that effective public policy interventions can weaken those connections.
"Household food insecurity represents a modifiable marker of risk for mental and substance use disorders, with evidence of effective public policy interventions,” the report states. “Focused efforts to support food-insecure families should be explored as a target for public mental health efforts to improve child and adolescent mental health and reduce the strain on the mental health system."
A full text of the CMAJ study can be found online here.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.