Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
J Acad Nutr Diet. 2021 Dec;121(12):2475-2500.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2021.07.015. Epub 2021 Aug 2.
University students may experience a high prevalence of food insecurity. The impacts of food insecurity on dietary intake and meal patterns of students have not been fully researched.
This systematic review aimed to examine the association between food insecurity and dietary outcomes among university students.
Nine electronic databases and gray literature were searched from their inception to July 2020. Studies that reported dietary outcomes in both food-secure and -insecure students or the association between food insecurity and dietary outcomes among current students in tertiary education settings in any country were included. All study designs were eligible for inclusion, except qualitative studies. Two reviewers completed the screening, data extraction, and quality assessment independently. Study quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute appraisal tools.
Sixteen studies were included in the final qualitative synthesis of this review. Most studies were cross-sectional designs and of fair quality. The prevalence of food insecurity among university students ranged from 21% to 82% across studies. Lower intakes of healthy foods (eg, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) and higher intakes of unhealthy foods (eg, fast foods, added sugars, and sugar-sweetened beverages) were observed in food-insecure students, and studies with the most representative samples of the student body found these trends. Some food-insecure students consumed breakfast and evening meals less frequently than food-secure students but the evidence was limited. Validated food security and dietary assessment tools were inconsistently used to assess diet quality among students with differing food security status. The heterogeneity of student sampling and data collection may contribute to inconsistent findings.
Poorer dietary outcomes were found in university students with food insecurity compared with food-secure students, but statistical significance was only observed in a small number of studies. Future longitudinal studies using food security and dietary assessment tools validated in this population are recommended to confirm the observed associations between food insecurity and diet quality among university students.
大学生可能经历较高的食物不安全发生率。食物不安全对学生饮食摄入和膳食模式的影响尚未被充分研究。
本系统综述旨在考察食物不安全与大学生膳食结果之间的关联。
从建库至 2020 年 7 月，检索 9 个电子数据库和灰色文献。纳入研究报告了食物安全和不安全学生的膳食结果，或报告了在任何国家的高等教育环境中当前学生食物不安全与膳食结果之间关联的研究。所有研究设计类型均纳入，除定性研究。两名综述作者独立完成筛选、数据提取和质量评估。使用 Joanna Briggs 研究所评估工具评估研究质量。
本综述最终纳入 16 项定性综合研究。大多数研究为横断面设计，质量为中等。大学生食物不安全发生率在研究间的范围为 21%~82%。与食物安全学生相比，食物不安全学生的健康食物（如水果、蔬菜和全谷物）摄入量较低，而不健康食物（如快餐、添加糖和含糖饮料）摄入量较高，且在代表性最大的学生样本研究中发现了这些趋势。一些食物不安全学生比食物安全学生更频繁地不吃早餐和晚餐，但证据有限。用于评估具有不同食物安全状况的学生饮食质量的验证过的食物安全和膳食评估工具使用不一致。学生抽样和数据收集的异质性可能导致研究结果不一致。
与食物安全学生相比，食物不安全的大学生膳食结果较差，但只有少数研究观察到了统计学意义。建议未来使用在该人群中验证过的食物安全和膳食评估工具开展前瞻性纵向研究，以进一步证实食物不安全与大学生饮食质量之间的关联。
