School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Brooks College of Health, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Gerontologist. 2024 Jan 1;64(1). doi: 10.1093/geront/gnac161.
Food insecurity is considered an increasing public health problem worldwide with adverse effects, especially among older adults. Although the literature related to food insecurity among older adults in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are expanding, little is known about existing patterns and knowledge gaps in these settings. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current research related to food insecurity among older adults in LMIC.
A systematic search was conducted in November 2021 and revised in July 2022 on six databases using terms related to food insecurity and older adults. Data were extracted, and the emerging themes from the main findings were summarized using a social-ecological model (SEM).
Forty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Almost half (48.8%) were published in the last 2 years and utilized a quantitative approach (n = 38). Only one study was conducted in a low-income country. Using the SEM, most studies included in this review focused on addressing the relationship between food insecurity with intrapersonal factors.
Several gaps in the current literature were identified. There is a lack of longitudinal and qualitative studies available on this topic. Also, only 15 LMIC were represented in the literature. A critical point in this review is that only a few studies addressed the relationship between food insecurity and the policy/social structure, institutional, community, and interpersonal levels. These identified gaps can serve as a guide for future research on this topic.
食物不安全被认为是全球范围内日益严重的公共卫生问题，对老年人的影响尤其严重。尽管有关中低收入国家（LMIC）老年人食物不安全的文献不断增加，但对于这些地区的现有模式和知识差距知之甚少。本范围综述旨在全面概述 LMIC 中老年人食物不安全的现有研究。
2021 年 11 月进行了系统检索，并于 2022 年 7 月在六个数据库中使用与食物不安全和老年人相关的术语进行了修订。提取数据，并使用社会生态模型（SEM）总结主要研究结果中的新兴主题。
符合纳入标准的有 41 项研究。近一半（48.8%）发表于过去 2 年，采用定量方法（n=38）。仅有一项研究在低收入国家进行。使用 SEM，本综述中纳入的大多数研究都集中在解决食物不安全与个体内在因素之间的关系。
确定了当前文献中的几个差距。关于这个主题，缺乏纵向和定性研究。此外，文献中仅代表了 15 个 LMIC。本综述的一个关键点是，只有少数研究探讨了食物不安全与政策/社会结构、机构、社区和人际关系层面之间的关系。这些已确定的差距可以作为该主题未来研究的指南。
