TY - JOUR
T1 - Food Insecurity among American Indian and Alaska Native People
T2 - A Scoping Review to Inform Future Research and Policy Needs
AU - Nikolaus, Cassandra J.
AU - Johnson, Selisha
AU - Benally, Tia
AU - Maudrie, Tara
AU - Henderson, Austin
AU - Nelson, Katie
AU - Lane, Trevor
AU - Segrest, Valerie
AU - Ferguson, Gary L.
AU - Buchwald, Dedra
AU - Blue Bird Jernigan, Valarie
AU - Sinclair, Ka'imi
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, under award number R01HL126578.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Food insecurity, defined as insufficient access to nutritious foods, is a social determinant of health that may underpin health disparities in the US. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals experience many health inequities that may be related to food insecurity, but no systematic analyses of the existing evidence have been published. Thus, the objective of this scoping review was to assess the literature on food insecurity among AI/AN individuals and communities, with a focus on the prevalence of food insecurity and its relations to sociodemographic, nutrition, and health characteristics. Systematic search and data extraction processes were used. Searches were conducted on PubMed as well as peer-reviewed journal and government websites. Of 3174 identified references, 34 publications describing 30 studies with predominantly AI/AN sample populations were included in the final narrative synthesis. Twenty-two studies (73%) were cross-sectional and the remaining 8 (27%) described interventions. The weighted average prevalence of food insecurity across the studies was 45.7%, although estimates varied from 16% to 80%. Most studies used some version of the USDA Food Security Survey Modules, although evidence supporting its validity in AI/AN respondents is limited. Based on the review, recommendations for future research were derived, which include fundamental validity testing, better representation of AI/AN individuals in federal or local food security reports, and consideration of cultural contexts when selecting methodological approaches. Advances in AI/AN food insecurity research could yield tangible benefits to ongoing initiatives aimed at increasing access to traditional foods, improving food environments on reservations and homelands, and supporting food sovereignty.
AB - Food insecurity, defined as insufficient access to nutritious foods, is a social determinant of health that may underpin health disparities in the US. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals experience many health inequities that may be related to food insecurity, but no systematic analyses of the existing evidence have been published. Thus, the objective of this scoping review was to assess the literature on food insecurity among AI/AN individuals and communities, with a focus on the prevalence of food insecurity and its relations to sociodemographic, nutrition, and health characteristics. Systematic search and data extraction processes were used. Searches were conducted on PubMed as well as peer-reviewed journal and government websites. Of 3174 identified references, 34 publications describing 30 studies with predominantly AI/AN sample populations were included in the final narrative synthesis. Twenty-two studies (73%) were cross-sectional and the remaining 8 (27%) described interventions. The weighted average prevalence of food insecurity across the studies was 45.7%, although estimates varied from 16% to 80%. Most studies used some version of the USDA Food Security Survey Modules, although evidence supporting its validity in AI/AN respondents is limited. Based on the review, recommendations for future research were derived, which include fundamental validity testing, better representation of AI/AN individuals in federal or local food security reports, and consideration of cultural contexts when selecting methodological approaches. Advances in AI/AN food insecurity research could yield tangible benefits to ongoing initiatives aimed at increasing access to traditional foods, improving food environments on reservations and homelands, and supporting food sovereignty.
KW - food access
KW - food sovereignty
KW - Indigenous
KW - literature review
KW - Native American
KW - nutrition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134386424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/advances/nmac008
DO - 10.1093/advances/nmac008
M3 - Article
C2 - 35092417
AN - SCOPUS:85134386424
SN - 2161-8313
VL - 13
SP - 1566
EP - 1583
JO - Advances in Nutrition
JF - Advances in Nutrition
IS - 5
ER -