(P20-112-24) A Typology of Food Insecurity and Its Association With Life Satisfaction, Depressive Symptoms, and Anxiety in College Students

Objectives: This study aimed to identify distinct food insecurity classes among college students, taking into account both the severity and nature of their food insecurity experiences. In addition, this study examined the associations between the identified latent classes and life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and anxiety.

Methods: A total of 664 university students (178 males, mean age 19) in a Midwestern university were surveyed. Food insecurity, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and anxiety were assessed by the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale, 5-item Satisfaction with Life scale, 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, and 7-item General Anxiety Disorder scale respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha for all scales were ≥ 0.87, indicating excellent internal consistency. Latent class analysis and ANOVA with post hoc analysis (Tukey’s method) were used to examine food insecurity latent classes and their relationships with life satisfaction, depressive symptoms and anxiety.

Results: Four classes of food insecurity were identified: Minimal food insecurity (proportion of individuals: 67%), Lack in food quantity (5%), Lack in food quality (16%), and Lack in both food quantity and quality (12%). Compared to the Minimal food insecurity class, Lack in food quality and Lack in both food quantity and quality classes reported significantly lower life satisfaction and higher depressive symptoms and anxiety. Interestingly, life satisfaction for Lack in food quantity was significantly higher than those of Lack in food quality and Lack in both food quantity and quality.

Conclusions: This study identified four distinct food insecurity subtypes via latent class analysis, providing a more nuanced description of the qualitative characteristics of food insecurity that could not be adequately captured by a summed score. The results suggest low life satisfaction and high levels of depressive symptom and anxiety may tend to cluster in certain food insecure subgroups. These findings may aid in the development of nuanced strategies to improve life satisfaction and decrease depressive symptoms and anxiety for college students who experience a lack in food quality or lack in both food quality and quantity.

Funding Sources: N/A