Association between food insecurity and risk of chronic diseases affecting the kidney in older Korean patients

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to examine the association between food insecurity and the prevalence of chronic diseases among older adults in South Korea and to compare the findings with data from the United States (US).

Materials and methods: We analyzed data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) V (2010 - 2012) and VI (2013 - 2015) and 4 years (2012 - 2015) of food security questionnaire data. The data of 46,189 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants (1999 - 2016) were subjected to propensity score-matched (PSM) analysis.

Results: We included 7,914 individuals from the KNHANES. In the older group (age > 65 years), no differences were observed in the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and metabolic syndrome across the income groups. Income, education, and food security had no impact on hypertension, diabetes, and CKD prevalence in the multivariate logistic analysis after PSM. CKD was not associated with food insecurity (odds ratio (OR), 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.94 - 1.26) in the final model using the KNHANES data; however, the U.S. NHANES data showed that an increased risk of hypertension was associated with food insecurity (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.04 - 1.55).

Conclusion: As per the U.S. NHANES data, food insecurity was associated with a high prevalence of hypertension, while as per the South Korean KNHANES data, food insecurity was not found to be associated with CKD, indicating divergent relationships between food insecurity and chronic diseases in the two countries. Further research is needed to explore these differences.