Revista de Psicología (Apr 2019)
Food insecurity and self-perception of diet quality in Caracas citizens: a study of the psychological impact
Abstract
Under multivariate models the objective of the present investigation was to investigate the effect of food insecurity and diversity, the self-perception of diet quality and sex in family functioning and general mental health, at the same time, it was intended to verify how these variables relate to each other in adults from Caracas-Venezuela. With interdisciplinary knowledge, it was proposed a non-experimental research with a path analysis in a sample of 970 adults from Caracas who maintained an economic contribution in their home. The final analysis was made with correlations bivariate and multiple regression. The results indicate that the conditions of food insecurity, and the diversity of the diet that shows the decrease in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, proteins of animal origin, carbohydrates and eggs when compared with different samples from Caracas, in different temporal moments. Regarding the individual psychological dimensions, food insecurity significantly predicts considerably the anxiety of the contributors to the home (ᵦ = 0.28; p = 0.000). For its part the self-perception of diet quality impact on anxious and depressive symptoms (ᵦ = 0.11; ᵦ = -0.11; p = 0.000). And finally, the family functioning is inversely predicted by food insecurity (ᵦ = -0.17; p = 0.000) and positively for the self-perception of diet quality (ᵦ = 0.14; p = 0.000). Therefore, food insecurity and the self-perception of diet quality constitute how predictive factors of individual and systemic psychological factors.
