A diet devoid of adequate amount of nutrition can cause health problems ranging from poor immunity to deadly diseases. There can be many reasons for inadequate food supply, financial incapacity, being the most glaring one. A recent report reveals that adults with lesser access to adequate food due to financial inability are more likely to succumb to any health issues other than cancer. The study that was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that premature death due to food scarcity is found in about 10 to 37 percent people as compared to food-secure people.
Lead author Dr Fei Men, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Professor Valerie Tarasuk at the University of Toronto wrote, "Among adults who died prematurely, those experiencing severe food insecurity died at age nine years earlier than their food-secure counterparts."
The researchers made these claims on the basis of their study done on the population of Canada. They discovered that the average life expectancy in Canada was 82 years between the years 2008 and 2014. For the study, deaths at or before the age were considered premature. The team analysed data from the Canadian Community Health Survey 2005-2017 on more than half a million adults in Canada. They categorised people as food secure, or marginally, moderately or severely food insecure.
By the end of the research, 25, 460 people had died prematurely, with people who were severely food insecure dying nine years younger than their food-secure counterparts. It was noticed that premature death by diseases, unintentional injuries and suicides were more than twice as likely for those experiencing severe as compared to people facing no food insecurity.
"The significant correlations of all levels of food insecurity with potentially avoidable deaths imply that food-insecure adults benefit less from public health efforts to prevent and treat diseases and injuries than their food-secure counterparts," wrote the authors.