Association between household food insecurity and asthma in Korean adults

Abstract

Householdfoodinsecurityhas been associated with noncommunicable diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate theassociationbetweenhouseholdfoodinsecurityandasthmainKoreanadults.Householdfoodsecurity statuses were classified into three groups:Food-securehousehold,food-insecurehouseholdwithout hunger, andfood-insecurehouseholdwith hunger. The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the presence ofasthmaaccording tohouseholdfoodsecurity status were calculated using multiple logistic regression analyses after adjusting for confounding factors. A total of 14,770 participants were included in the analysis. The prevalence ofasthmawas 2.6% in those with a securefoodstatus, 3.2% in those with an insecurefoodstatus without hunger, and 7.6% in those with an insecurefoodstatus with hunger (p< 0.001). Compared with that in participants with ahouseholdfoodsecure status, the odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) forasthmawere 1.12 (0.73-1.73) in those with afood-insecurehouseholdwithout hunger status and 2.44 (1.33-4.46) in those with afood-insecurehouseholdwith hunger status after additionally adjusting for confounding factors. We found thathouseholdfoodinsecuritywith hunger was significantly associated withasthmaprevalence inKoreanadults. Implementation ofhouseholdfoodsecurity screening and public health intervention could be helpful to prevent and reduceasthmainadults.