ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF FOOD INSECURITY AMONG UNDER TREATMENT CANCER PATIENTS IN A LOCAL SETUP

Background and Aim: Food insecurity exists while accessibility of nutritionally sufficient and secure foods or the ability to obtain admissible foods in socially acceptable ways is restricted or unsure. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world and incidence and mortality of that have steadily increased and may be associated to nutrition and lifestyle manners. The purpose of this study was assessing the level of food insecurity and some of the related socio-economic characteristics among under treatment cancer patients.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 240 cancer patients in Iran in 2014. General and socio-economic characteristics and food security status were assessed using socio-economic and 18-item USDA food security questionnaires, respectively. Results: The prevalence of food insecurity from the aspect of hunger and hidden hunger was 25.4 % and 52.5%, respectively. Only 22.1% of the patients were food secure. Logistic regression analysis showed that among the variables of having children under 18 years old (P-value= 0.035), economic status (P-value<0.001), age of the patient (P-value=0.001), and educational level of household’s head (P-value= 0.044) with food insecurity was observed statistically significant relationship. Other variables were not significantly associated with the food insecurity.Conclusion: Since the high prevalence of food insecurity among under treatment cancer patients, it is essential for policymakers in health system to pay more attention the importance of food insecurity on the effective treatment of these patients.

Keywords:

Food insecurity , USDA food security questionnaire , Cancer