Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2012 Aug;102(8):1579-86. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300551. Epub 2012 Jun 14.
To expand the understanding of potential pathways through which food insecurity is associated with adverse health outcomes, we investigated whether food insecurity is associated with nutritional levels, inflammatory response, and altered immune function.
We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2006) with 12,191 participants. We assessed food insecurity using the US Department of Agriculture food security scale module and measured clinical biomarkers from blood samples obtained during participants' visits to mobile examination centers.
Of the study population, 21.5% was food insecure. Food insecurity was associated with higher levels of C-reactive protein (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.04, 1.40) and of white blood cell count (AOR=1.36; 95% CI=1.11, 1.67). White blood cell count partly mediated the association between food insecurity and C-reactive protein.
These findings show that food insecurity is associated with increased inflammation, a correlate of chronic diseases. Immune response also appears to be a potential mediator in this pathway.
为了更深入地了解食物不安全与不良健康结果之间可能存在的关联途径，我们研究了食物不安全是否与营养水平、炎症反应和免疫功能改变有关。
我们对美国国家健康和营养调查（1999-2006 年）进行了横断面分析，共有 12191 名参与者。我们使用美国农业部的食物安全量表模块评估食物不安全状况，并测量了参与者在移动体检中心就诊期间采集的血液样本中的临床生物标志物。
在研究人群中，21.5%的人存在食物不安全。与食物安全的人相比，食物不安全的人 C 反应蛋白水平更高（调整后的优势比 [AOR]=1.21；95%置信区间 [CI]=1.04，1.40），白细胞计数也更高（AOR=1.36；95% CI=1.11，1.67）。白细胞计数部分介导了食物不安全与 C 反应蛋白之间的关联。
这些发现表明，食物不安全与炎症增加有关，而炎症是慢性疾病的一个相关因素。免疫反应似乎也是这一途径中的一个潜在中介因素。
