Food insecurity and its socioeconomic and health determinants in pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age, during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Francilene Maria Azevedo; Núbia de Souza de Morais; Debora Leticia Frizzi Silva; Aline Carare Candido; Dayane de Castro Morais; Silvia Eloiza Priore; Sylvia do Carmo Castro Franceschini

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1087955

Food insecurity and its socioeconomic and health determinants in pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age, during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 24:11:1087955. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1087955. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Francilene Maria Azevedo¹, Núbia de Souza de Morais¹, Debora Leticia Frizzi Silva¹, Aline Carare Candido¹, Dayane de Castro Morais¹, Silvia Eloiza Priore¹, Sylvia do Carmo Castro Franceschini¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Nutrition and Health, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced access to adequate food in terms of quality and quantity, especially for the most vulnerable population groups. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Food Insecurity and its main socioeconomic and health determinants in pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) and registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (CRD42021278033). The descriptors "Pregnant Woman", "Postpartum Women", "Breastfeeding Women", "COVID-19", "Food Insecurity", "Food Security" were combined in Scopus (Elsevier), Medline/PubMed (via National Library of Medicine), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science and Science Direct independently by two researchers in September 2022. Original articles about Food Insecurity in households with pregnant women and mothers of children under 2 years of age during the COVID-19 pandemic were included. The meta-analysis of the prevalence of Food Insecurity was conducted using the RStudio software (4.0.4).

Results: The initial search resulted in 539 records, and 10 articles met the proposed criteria and were included in this review. The prevalence of Food Insecurity ranged from 11.5 to 80.3% and in the meta-analysis it was 51% (IC: 30-71) (I ² = 100.0%). The main socioeconomic and health determinants were ethnicity, domain language, low education, low income, informal employment, unemployment, occurrence of mental disorders, domestic violence, in addition to the unavailability of food in markets and lack of transport. The inclusion of studies with data collection by telephone stands out as a limitation, due to the non-inclusion of vulnerable groups without access to this means of communication.

Conclusion: It is necessary to implement and strengthen specific public policies for the maternal and child group with the objective of protecting and strengthening the rights of women to maintain the physical and mental integrity of this group and guarantee Food Security.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; food security; postpartum period; pregnancy; social determinants of health.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Systematic Review
Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Child
Female
Food Supply / methods
Humans
Infant
Mothers
Pandemics
Poverty
Pregnancy
Pregnant Women

Grants and funding

This work was carried out with the support of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—Brazil (CAPES)—Financing Code 001 and the Support and Research Foundation of Minas Gerais State (FAPEMIG).