Food insecurity increases risk of poor heart health in young adults
Food insecurity can directly increase a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life, according to new findings published in JAMA Cardiology.[1]
The study’s authors noted that food insecurity—being unable to consistently access enough food to live an “active, healthy lifestyle”—impacts up to one in eight Americans each year. Previous studies have determined that food insecurity is associated with certain CVD risk factors—hypertension and obesity, for example—but whether it directly leads to CVD remained unclear.
To learn more, the group explored data from more than 3,500 Black and white Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 who participated in the CARDIA study in 1985-1986. Fifty-six percent of patients were women.
From 2000 to 2020, all CARDIA participants completed in-person surveys every five years in addition to annual communication through telephone, mail or email. A question about food security were included in each in-person survey.
The study’s authors then compared survey responses with recorded CVD events over the next two decades. The mean follow-up period was 18.8 years.
Overall, food insecurity was identified in 15% of study participants. These individuals were more likely to be Black and report lower educational attainment. CVD events—fatal or nonfatal coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, transient ischemic attack or peripheral artery disease—were seen in 11% of participants with food insecurity and 6% of patients without food insecurity.
“These findings suggest that food insecurity, like other markers of social deprivation, is associated with a higher rate of CVD events,” the authors wrote. “This highlights the potential for developing strategies to alleviate food insecurity and its associated health conditions, as well as the use of food insecurity measures to refine individual CVD risk assessment. Further research to confirm the association between food insecurity and incident CVD should be conducted in larger studies with more diverse adults of a wider age range and longer follow-up to fully capture the risk of CVD.”
Click here to read the full study in JAMA Cardiology.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.