ArticleCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2020
Association between household food insecurity and mortality in Canada: a population-based retrospective cohort study.
Article in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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58 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health outcomes following childhood or adolescent exposure to household food insecurity: a rapid systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Food-based interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025Pooled it
- The Association of Food Insecurity and Risk of Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Large-Scale Cohorts.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Association of Food Insecurity With Multiple Forms of Interpersonal and Self-Directed Violence: A Systematic Review.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of Health and Social Factors on the Cardiometabolic Risk in People with Food Insecurity: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- What is known about the prevalence of household food insecurity in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2022Pooled it
- Social drivers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: securing better outcomes may start with food.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2026Article
- Reply to: Food insecurity and mortality in older adults: a prospective reconstruction.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Article
- Food insecurity as a predictor of all-cause mortality and premature mortality among older adults: a longitudinal cohort analysis of ELSA study.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Article
- Food Security and Malnutrition Status in Patients with Cancer: An Australian Cross-Sectional Survey.Nutrients · 2026Observational
- Effects of healthy lifestyles on the association between food security and all-cause mortality risk.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- "We treat the symptom, not the system": a qualitative study exploring connections between food insecurity and disease-related malnutrition in Canada.BMJ nutrition, prevention & health · 2026Article
- The evidence is in: accountability needs to be injected into the policy-making process for household food insecurity reduction.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025Article
- The Interplay of Food Insecurity, Diet Quality, and Dementia Status in their Association with All-Cause Mortality Among Older US Adults in the Health and Retirement Study 2012-2020.Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2025Article
- Growing roots: the role of collective community gardening in cultural food insecurity and social integration of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Mortality Outcomes for Survivors of Cancer With Food Insecurity in the US.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- Food Insecurity and Loneliness in the Former Soviet Countries.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Rethinking 2S/LGBTQI+ food security with co-design: a study protocol.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Does food insecurity compromise diet quality among Finnish private sector service workers?Public health nutrition · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFood insecurity affects 1 in 8 households in Canada, with serious health consequences. We investigated the association between household food insecurity and all-cause and cause-specific mortality.
methodsWe assessed the food insecurity status of Canadian adults using the Canadian Community Health Survey 2005-2017 and identified premature deaths among the survey respondents using the Canadian Vital Statistics Database 2005-2017. Applying Cox survival analyses to the linked data sets, we compared adults' all-cause and cause-specific mortality hazard by their household food insecurity status.
resultsOf the 510 010 adults sampled (3 390 500 person-years), 25 460 died prematurely by 2017. Death rates of food-secure adults and their counterparts experiencing marginal, moderate and severe food insecurity were 736, 752, 834 and 1124 per 100 000 person-years, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause premature mortality for marginal, moderate and severe food insecurity were 1.10 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-1.18), 1.11 (95% CI 1.05-1.18) and 1.37 (95% CI 1.27-1.47), respectively. Among adults who died prematurely, those experiencing severe food insecurity died on average 9 years earlier than their food-secure counterparts (age 59.5 v. 68.9 yr). Severe food insecurity was consistently associated with higher mortality across all causes of death except cancers; the association was particularly pronounced for infectious-parasitic diseases (adjusted HR 2.24, 95% CI 1.42-3.55), unintentional injuries (adjusted HR 2.69, 95% CI 2.04-3.56) and suicides (adjusted HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.50-3.24).
interpretationCanadian adults from food-insecure households were more likely to die prematurely than their food-secure counterparts. Efforts to reduce premature mortality should consider food insecurity as a relevant social determinant.
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