SynthesisPublic health nutrition2020
Food insecurity and mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Public health nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 287 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Psychosocial Intervention With Precarious Young People: a Comparative Longitudinal Study on Psychological Distress and Food Insecurity
Improving Dietary Quality Through Animal Source Protein Accessibility in a Low-Resource Setting
Who cites it
287 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 495 citations in OpenAlex.
- Food insecurity and mental health among migrants and refugees in high-income countries: Systematic review and meta-analyses.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- A review of the 257 meta-analyses of the differences between females and males in prevalence and risk, protective factors, and treatment outcomes for mental disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The Association of Food Insecurity and Risk of Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Large-Scale Cohorts.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Food Insecurity Among Post-Secondary Students in High Income Countries: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Current nutrition reports · 2025Pooled it
- Household food insecurity and symptoms of anxiety and depression during pregnancy: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Focusing attention on the important association between food insecurity and psychological distress: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Local Food System Approaches to Address Food and Nutrition Security among Low-Income Populations: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Pooled it
- Prevalence and associated factors of depression in Sri Lanka: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- The Impact of Providing Material Benefits to Improve Access to Food on Clinical Parameters, Dietary Intake, and Household Food Insecurity in People with Diabetes: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Pooled it
- Food insecurity and binge eating: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The International journal of eating disorders · 2023Pooled it
- Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programme impacts women's mental health via food security in rural Bangladesh.BMJ global health · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Food Security and Cardio-Metabolic Risk in Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Trial
- Food insecurity in adults living with severe mental illness in Australia: an exploration of causes and experiences using a co-design approach.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Hunger as an uncontroversial predictor of poor adolescent mental health: evidence from a multiverse analysis of 410,213 adolescents across 79 countries.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Food Insecurity, Physical Activity, and Psychological Factors as Predictors of Life Satisfaction in Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Food Insecurity and Gastrointestinal Health: Examining Links Between Food Security, Constipation, and Diarrhea in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2026Article
- Voices from the foodbank: experiencing food insecurity in North-West England during the cost-of-living crisis.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Interconnected effects of witnessing household violence, food insecurity, and mental health among peri-urban Cape Town youth: A mediation analysis.Journal of child and adolescent mental health · 2026Article
- Financial, housing, food, and healthcare insecurities and their independent and joint associations with depressive symptoms and stress in a U.S. cohort of adults with and without HIV.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
227 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveFood security has been suggested to be a risk factor for depression, stress and anxiety. We therefore undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of available publications to examine these associations further.
designRelevant studies were identified by searching Web of Science, Embase, Scopus and PubMed databases up to January 2019.
settingOR was pooled using a random-effects model. Standard methods were used for assessment of heterogeneity and publication bias.
participantsData were available from nineteen studies with 372 143 individual participants from ten different countries that were pooled for the meta-analysis.
resultsThe results showed there was a positive relationship between food insecurity (FI) and risk of depression (OR = 1·40; 95 % CI: 1·30, 1·58) and stress (OR = 1·34; 95 % CI: 1·24, 1·44) but not anxiety. Subgroup analysis by age showed that subjects older than ≥65 years exhibited a higher risk of depression (OR = 1·75; 95 % CI: 1·20, 2·56) than younger participants (OR = 1·34; 95 % CI: 1·20, 1·50), as well as a greater risk of depression in men (OR = 1·42; 95 % CI: 1·17, 1·72) than women (OR = 1·30; 95 % CI: 1·16, 1·46). Finally, subgroup analysis according to geographical location illustrated that food insecure households living in North America had the highest risk of stress and anxiety.
conclusionsThe evidence from this meta-analysis suggests that FI has a significant effect on the likelihood of being stressed or depressed. This indicates that health care services, which alleviate FI, would also promote holistic well-being in adults.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.