by, Marina Makhaly
This public awareness campaign for food insecurity helps to solve the problem and its goal is to have zero hungry kids. Many kids may not have consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life in the United States. Food insecurity is an essential problem in America as is discussed in the study, “Hunger: Its Impact on Children’s Health and Mental Health”. This study examines the independent contribution of child hunger on children’s physical and mental health and academic functioning when controlling for a range of environmental, maternal, and child factors that have also been associated with poor outcomes among children.
This study illustrates the impact of hunger on physical and mental health and academic functioning of children. The average income of families that participated was approximately $11, 000. The data were collected from homeless and low-income housed mothers and their children preschool-aged children and school-aged children. The families were classified into 3 categories: no hunger, adult or moderate child hunger, or severe childhood hunger based on the Hunger Identification Project. Outcomes measured included children’s chronic health condition count using questions adapted from the National Health Interview Survey, Child Health Supplement, and internalizing behavior problems and anxiety. Multivariate regression analyses examined the effect of child hunger on physical and mental health outcomes. Among the school-aged children, on average 10 years old, 50% experienced moderate child hunger, and 16% severe child hunger.
Results of compared with those with no hunger, school-aged children with severe hunger were more likely to be homeless (56% vs 29%), have low birth weights (23% vs 6%), and have more stressful life events (9 vs 6) when compared with those with no hunger. School-aged children with severe hunger scores had parent-reported anxiety scores that were more than double the scores for children with no hunger and significantly higher chronic illness counts (3.4 vs 1.8) and internalizing behavior problems when compared with children with no hunger.
