Food insecurity linked to poor mental and physical health in Tasmania

The Tasmanian survey shows that food insecurity is associated with lower diet satisfaction and poor self-rated health, highlighting how limited access to affordable, nutritious food can restrict choice, reduce well-being and deepen health inequalities.

Study: The relationship between food insecurity, diet satisfaction, mental health and physical health among Australian adults: a cross-sectional survey.. Image Credit: Seventyfour/Shutterstock

In a recent study published in Journal of Human Nutrition and DieteticsA group of researchers examined how food insecurity is associated with diet satisfaction, mental health, and physical health among adults living in Tasmania, Australia.

Food affordability and diet quality

What happens when people can’t reliably buy healthy food? In Australia, one in eight households, or 13.2%, struggle to afford enough food due to rising living costs, unstable employment and social inequality. This insecurity often forces people to buy cheaper, less nutritious food, skip meals, or rely on food donations. These experiences can reduce the enjoyment of eating and have negative effects on emotional and physical health.

Various studies show that food insecurity is associated with depression, anxiety, chronic disease and poor diet quality, but Australian data is limited. More research is needed to better understand these interconnected health effects.

survey methods

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey involving adults aged 18 and older living in Tasmania, Australia, between December 2023 and January 2024.

Participants were recruited through The Tasmania Project, an ongoing research initiative examining social and health experiences among Tasmanian residents. Additional participants were reached through social media and community advertising, and the study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Tasmania.

In this study, the 18-item United States Household Food Security Survey module was used to determine whether households had experienced difficulties obtaining enough food in the past 30 days.

The researchers divided the participants into food-secure, moderately food-insecure, moderately food-insecure and severely food-insecure categories based on their responses. Participants rated their mental and physical health using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from excellent to poor. Diet satisfaction was also assessed using a five-point scale, which measured satisfaction with participants’ eating habits.

The study used the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics software to analyze surveys. Logistic regression analyzes were also conducted to examine the association between food insecurity and health status, controlling for age, educational attainment, income, employment status, disability status, country of birth, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.

Diet satisfaction and mental health

The final analysis included 869 participants, the majority of whom were female and university educated. Nearly 30% faced food insecurity, highlighting that access to affordable, nutritious food remains a major issue even in a high-income country like Australia.

About 20% of participants were dissatisfied with their food choices, and about one in three rated their mental well-being as fair or poor, while more than 25% rated their physical well-being as fair or poor.

Food insecurity showed the strongest association with diet dissatisfaction. People experiencing food insecurity were more likely to feel unhappy with their eating habits than food-secure individuals.

Of the food-secure participants, more than 80% reported that they were satisfied with their diet. In contrast, only one-third of people with severe food insecurity expressed satisfaction with what they ate.

Many participants experiencing severe food insecurity reported being dependent on less preferred foods or unable to maintain a diet consistent with their personal or cultural preferences. Even after controlling for economic and social factors, food-insecure participants were more than four times as likely to report dissatisfaction with their diet.

Self-rated mental health was also poorer as food insecurity was more severe. Half of the food-secure participants reported having excellent or very good mental health, while about 10% of the severely food-insecure participants reported having excellent or very good mental health.

About 68% of all severely food-insecure participants reported fair or poor mental health. Additionally, after controlling for demographic characteristics, participants who were experiencing food insecurity were more than twice as likely to report poor mental health compared to participants who were food secure.

Researchers indicated that chronic stress about getting enough food, perception of social stigma due to food insecurity, uncertainty about future food, and/or lack of resources to access food may help explain the association with poor mental health, including emotional distress and reduced well-being.

Regarding participants’ physical health, those who experienced moderate or severe food insecurity were much more likely to rate their physical health as fair or poor than those who were food-secure.

Although the study did not directly measure chronic disease outcomes or dietary intake, the authors said previous research links food insecurity to poor diet quality and higher risk of chronic conditions.

People experiencing food insecurity may rely more on cheap, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. As a result, these dietary characteristics may be contributing factors to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and declining overall health and well-being.

It was also observed that food insecurity was more common among young adults, unemployed people, people with disabilities, low-income families, and single-parent families. The study shows that structural and socioeconomic inequalities impact food insecurity more strongly, and it is not based solely on individual food choices.

Food insecurity as a public health problem

The study showed that food insecurity is strongly associated with lower diet satisfaction and poor mental and physical health among Australian adults living in Tasmania. As food insecurity increases, the associated disadvantages also appear to increase, suggesting that limited access to acceptable, affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate foods can have a negative impact on daily life.

These results show that food insecurity is not only a nutrition issue but also a public health and social issue. However, because the study was cross-sectional and relied on self-reported data from a non-representative sample who were mostly female, older and university-educated, the findings cannot prove causation and may not apply to all Australians.

Dietitians and other professionals in the health care system play an important role in identifying individuals at risk for food insecurity, providing individualized nutritional support, and advocating for policies that improve food affordability and equitable access to healthy foods for individuals in the community.

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