Household Food Insecurity and Depression among Single Mothers in Rural Alabama

Although we live in a wealthy nation, food insecurity, whereby individuals and families have limited or uncertain access to food due to lack of financial resources, continues to affect millions of American families. The objective of this study was twofold: to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among single mothers in rural Alabama; and to determine the extent to which food insecurity is associated with depression. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 300 single mothers living in five rural counties in Alabama using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module and Center for Epidemiologic Study of Depression (CES-D) scale. About 36% of the 300 households were classified as food insecure. In bivariate analyses, household food insecurity was significantly associated with depression. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variables in multivariate analyses, household food insecurity was still positively associated with depression