Food insecurity and eating behavior prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. An exploratory study in Venezuela.

ABSTRACT

Background: The aim of this research was to explore how food insecurity affected food behavior prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (year 2018-2019) in a sample of people residing in nine administrative regions of Venezuela. Method(s) 1099 people aged between 17 and 75 years participated, with a majority residing in the Andes, Capital and Central regions of the country. A reduced version of a modified national survey on living conditions (Encovi-2017) composed of 11 questions was administered. Estimates with chi square (chi2) were made to verify associations between the characteristics of the sample (age, region of origin and sex) with the approaches of the administered survey. Result(s) A high degree of food insecurity was observed as people reported concerns about food access (88.95%), or lack of them (55.79%), periods of food deprivation and alteration of eating patterns. Those participants under 21 years were more likely to alter their daily intake pattern (p = 0.01), with women being the most affected in terms of the family running out of food in the last three months (p = 0.020) and if in the last trimester a whole day had gone without eating (p = 0.05). Conclusion(s) The study shows that women and young people under 21 years of age or middle-aged adults and inhabitants of the Capital region turn out to be the people most affected by food insecurity as they consumed less food or ate fewer servings per day. The data reveal a worsening of the food situation.Copyright © 2022 Sociedad Espanola de Nutricion Comunitaria. All rights reserved.