Sajjad Moradi - Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Student’s Research Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran

Background and Objective: Increasing evidence has suggested an association between food insecurity and the risk of anaemia. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to examine the associations between food insecurity and anaemia risk. Search Method: Pertinent studies were identified by searching PubMed and EMBASE databases up to August 2017. Data were available from nineteen studies; seventeen studies were cross-sectional and two studies were longitudinal. Risk ratios of 95 993 individual participants from twelve different countries in these studies were pooled for the meta-analysis. Findings: The results showed that there was an overall positive relationship between food insecurity and anaemia risk (OR = 1·27; 95 % CI 1·13, 1·40). Similar results were observed for Fe-deficiency anaemia (OR = 1·45; 95 % CI 1·04, 1·86). These results revealed that food insecurity at two levels, including mild food insecurity (OR = 1·15; 95 % CI 1·00, 1·31) and moderate food insecurity (OR = 1·36; 95 % CI 1·23, 1·48), increased the risk of anaemia. In addition, it was found that age had an impact on the associations between food insecurity and anaemia risk (OR = 1·22; 95 % CI 1·09, 1·36). Age subgroup analysis indicated that food insecurity significantly increased the risk of anaemia among infants/toddlers (OR = 1·17; 95 % CI 1·05, 1·29) and adult women (OR = 1·35; 95 % CI 1·16, 1·54). Conclusions: It seems that infants, toddlers and adult women in food-insecure households are at a higher risk of anaemia. To prevent anaemia in food-insecure households, these age groups may require more nutritional support.

Food insecurity, Anaemia risk, Systematic review, Meta-analysis