Food Security

Project Name: Food Security
Created: September 16, 2010
Status: NOT APPROVED

This study is a national community-based study that brings together researchers from across Canada to study the effects of food insecurity on health outcomes and quality of life of people living with HIV, as well as the access barriers affecting food insecurity.

A wide range of social, economic, environmental and health factors contribute to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. People with HIV are struggling with social and economic stressors that can have significant and negative effects on health, well-being and quality of life. While Canada does not routinely collect data on the socioeconomic needs of people with HIV, there are indicators that poverty is a growing and critical issue. A major consequence of poverty is food insecurity, which is defined as having “uncertain or limited availability of nutritionally adequate or safe food or the inability to procure [and have access to] food in socially acceptable ways”(1).