New Study Finds Women With Disabilities More Likely To Experience Food Insecurity

A new study found that women with disabilities are more likely to experience food insecurity and poor diets compared with women without disabilities. The study was conducted at the New York University (NYU) School of Global Public Health.

The study was about the dietary quality and diet-related factors among female adults with and without disabilities. Women of reproductive age (18 to 44 years) with disabilities have higher rates of health-risk behaviours and chronic conditions as compared to women without disabilities. The study aimed to compare the behaviours and conditions related to diet.

Women With Disabilities Food Insecurity

The study's lead author Andrea Deierlein, associate professor of public health nutrition at NYU School of Global Public Health said, "A healthy diet requires access to healthy food and resources or ability to prepare them, and women with disabilities may face obstacles due to medical conditions or physical limitations."

Data was collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and female adults and their diet quality and diet-related factors were analysed. 3,579 women were asked about their food intake on a given day, which was calculated into diet quality scores. The women were also asked about food security and participation in food assistance programs.

Sixteen percent of the women reported having a disability, which was defined as serious difficulty hearing, seeing, concentrating, walking, dressing, and/or running errands due to physical, emotional, and mental conditions. 6 percent of the women reported having two or more types of disabilities.

The study found that there were few differences in women’s diet quality scores by their disability status. However, women with disabilities were more likely to rate their diet as poor and report their food security as low or very low. They were also more likely to participate in food assistance programs.

Women with disabilities were also less likely to be the main person in the households responsible for meal planning, preparing, and food shopping. They are also more likely to consume frozen foods.

The study concluded that some indicators of diet quality and diet-related factors differed between women with disabilities and women without disabilities. It added that additional investigation of dietary intake, dietary behaviour, access to healthy food, and availability of healthy food among women with disabilities was required.

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