EXAMINING DIETARY INTAKE, FOOD SECURITY AND HEALTH AMONG THE POPULATION WITH LOW INCOMES

Food insecurity describes the lack of access to foods and affects 10.2% of general U.S. households and 27% of low-income households in 2021. Food insecurity is a pervasive public health concern in the United States and has been linked to poor dietary intake and diet quality, overweight and obesity (especially among women), and risk of other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. To better understand food security status and address its associated health and dietary outcomes among low-income populations, a conceptualized model was built and served as research framework for the dissertation, including 1) internal factors and motivations, such as traits related to self-efficacy and sufficiency that may influence diet and health; 2) external factors of temporary support, such as financial benefits from assistance programs that low-income populations are eligible for that may influence diet and health; and 3) external factors of potentially long-term support, such as nutrition education programs targeting low-income groups that may foster internalized knowledge that could sustain impact and improvement of diet and health in the long-term. Each chapter of this dissertation addresses a component of the model. Cross-sectional analysis of a sample of rural veterans using food pantries quantified psychological traits related to self-motivation and efficacy including grit and help seeking, at the individual and internal factors level of the conceptualized model, and their links to food security and resource use, and revealed an inverse association between grit score and risk of food insecurity. The findings provided evidence for future interventions targeting food insecurity improvement to include education and resources that address traits related to self-efficacy, such as grit, among low-income populations to improve health outcomes directly or through improving food security or use of resources. Using nationally representative data, the second study investigated relationships between food ...