Household Food Insecurity and Middle-Aged Women’s Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing in Rural Mozambique

Boaventura Cau, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Victor Agadjanian, Department of Sociology and the International Institute University of California - Los Angeles
Sarah R. Hayford, Ohio State University
Carlos Arnaldo, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Ines Raimundo, Eduardo Mondlane University

Food security, or access to adequate quantities and variety of food, is an essential dimension of health and wellbeing, with important implications for physical health, mental health, and broader psychosocial wellbeing. The implications of food insecurity may be exacerbated by recurrent or chronic experiences on insufficiency. Yet, few studies have examined the relationship between food insecurity and health and psychosocial wellbeing, including the mechanisms through which that relationship may occur. This study uses data from two waves of the Men’s Migrations and Women’s Lives longitudinal study conducted in rural southern Mozambique in 2017 and 2023 (n=1226) to examine the association of household long-term food insecurity with middle-aged women’s physical health and selected measures of psychosocial wellbeing. In the preliminary analyses, we find that continuous food insecurity is significantly and substantially associated with negative self-rated health and psychosocial wellbeing outcomes (depression and general satisfaction with life). Our findings appear to show evidence of a mediating role of women’s empowerment and social support on the relationship between food insecurity and self-rated health and psychosocial wellbeing.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Population Ageing, Health and Morbidity

See extended abstract.