Undergraduate Course of Nutrition, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Department of Nutrition, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Int J Equity Health. 2024 Oct 31;23(1):224. doi: 10.1186/s12939-024-02311-3.
Racial discrimination is linked to unhealthy food environments and a higher prevalence of food insecurity. However, no study has explored their interrelated effects. We analyzed the relationship between racial discrimination, community food environment, and food insecurity in adults of different socioeconomic status. We also investigated the potential modifying effect of the food environment on the relationship between racism and food insecurity.
This was a cross-sectional study of 400 adults aged 20-70 years residing in the central area of Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state. Race and racial discrimination were assessed by self-reported race/skin color using the Experiences of Discrimination scale (EOD), respectively. The food environment was assessed using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S) tool. Food insecurity was assessed using the short version of the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA for short, in Portuguese). Poisson regression with robust variance was employed for the multivariate analysis.
The prevalence of food insecurity was higher in areas with a poorer food environment (areas 1 and 3; 56.6% and 58.8%, respectively). Racial discrimination was associated with food insecurity, where every 1-point increase in the racial discrimination score increased the likelihood of food insecurity by 7% (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.07; 95% CI, 1.03-1.20). When stratifying the analyses by food environment, racial discrimination was associated with food insecurity only in areas with a poorer food environment (PR 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.10).
Experiences of racial discrimination were associated with a higher prevalence of food insecurity in the study population. The community food environment was an effect modifier of this relationship, highlighting the relevance of interventions in the food environment focused on areas with a greater presence of Black people as a way of combating racism and food insecurity.
种族歧视与不健康的食品环境和更高的粮食不安全发生率有关。然而，尚无研究探讨它们之间的相互影响。我们分析了不同社会经济地位的成年人中种族歧视、社区食品环境和粮食不安全之间的关系。我们还研究了食品环境对种族主义与粮食不安全之间关系的潜在调节作用。
这是一项横断面研究，纳入了居住在南里奥格兰德州首府阿雷格里港中心区域的 400 名 20-70 岁成年人。种族和种族歧视分别通过自我报告的种族/肤色和歧视经历量表（EOD）进行评估。食品环境使用商店营养环境测量工具（NEMS-S）进行评估。粮食不安全使用巴西粮食不安全短量表（EBIA）进行评估。多元分析采用稳健方差的泊松回归。
食品环境较差的地区（区域 1 和 3）的粮食不安全发生率更高（分别为 56.6%和 58.8%）。种族歧视与粮食不安全有关，种族歧视评分每增加 1 分，粮食不安全的可能性就增加 7%（流行比[PR]1.07；95%可信区间，1.03-1.20）。当按食品环境对分析进行分层时，只有在食品环境较差的地区（PR 1.06；95%可信区间，1.01-1.10），种族歧视才与粮食不安全有关。
在研究人群中，种族歧视经历与粮食不安全发生率较高有关。社区食品环境是这种关系的一个效应修饰因素，强调了在食品环境中开展以存在更多黑人的地区为重点的干预措施的重要性，这是打击种族主义和粮食不安全的一种方式。
