Food security for community‐living elderly people in Beijing, China. (21st June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheng, Yang; Rosenberg, Mark; Yu, Jie; Zhang, Hua
• Is Part Of: Health & social care in the community. Volume 24:Number 6(2016)
• Page Start: 747
• Page End: 757
• Publication Date: 2015-06-21
• Subjects: Beijing -- community‐living elderly people -- food programmes -- food security; Public welfare -- Periodicals; Community health services -- Periodicals; Human services -- Periodicals; 362.1
• DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12255
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-0410

Abstract

Abstract: Food security has been identified as an important issue for elderly people's quality of life and ageing in place. A food security index composed of three indicators (food intake, food quality and food affordability) was developed to measure the food security status of community‐living elderly people. Food security was then examined among community‐living elderly in the central urban districts of Beijing, China. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey in the summer of 2013 and the response rate was 78.5%. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were applied to analyse food security and the associations between food security and demographic and socioeconomic factors. The results showed that 54.2% of the surveyed elderly experienced food security. Participants with better education (OR = 1.68) and better health (OR = 1.47) were more likely to experience food security. The young‐old were less likely to experience food security than the older old (OR = 0.94). Elderly people who lived with their children were less likely to experience food security than those who lived alone (OR = 0.43). The results of impact factors on food security highlight both similarities with studies from more developed countries and the unique challenges faced in a rapidly changing China with its unique social, cultural and political systems. The food security index we developed in this study is a simple and effective measure of food security status, which can be used in surveys for evaluating the food security status of elderly people in the future.