Table 7.
Mean psychological distress scores in different measures of food insecurity, according to level of drought exposure
| Food insecurity indicators | Drought exposures | Test for difference across drought exposures | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero or moderate | Very dry | Long dry | Constant dry | Constant and long dry | ||||||||
| Mean (SE) | P-value | Mean (SE) | P-value | Mean (SE) | P-value | Mean (SE) | P-value | Mean (SE) | P-value | Chi 2 (4) | P-value | |
| Missing meals | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 21.7 (0.8) | 31.7 (2.4) | 23.2 (1.2) | 19.7 (2.0) | 18.4 (2.7) | 18.4 | 0.001 | |||||
| No | 15.2 (0.1) | 15.0 (0.2) | 15.0 (0.2) | 14.8 (0.4) | 14.9 (0.3) | |||||||
| Difference | 6.5 (0.8) | <0.001 | 16.6 (2.4) | <0.001 | 8.2 (1.2) | <0.001 | 4.9 (2.0) | 0.015 | 3.5 (2.7) | 0.187 | ||
| Below-average consumption core food | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 15.6 (0.2) | 15.5 (0.4) | 15.4 (0.3) | 14.9 (0.6) | 15.4 (0.5) | 1.1 | 0.894 | |||||
| No | 15.2 (0.1) | 15.1 (0.3) | 14.9 (0.2) | 14.9 (0.5) | 14.7 (0.4) | |||||||
| Difference | 0.4 (0.2) | 0.054 | 0.4 (0.5) | 0.384 | 0.5 (0.3) | 0.152 | 0.0 (0.7) | 0.983 | 0.7 (0.6) | 0.329 | ||
| Above-average consumption discretionary food | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 15.5 (0.2) | 15.6 (0.3) | 15.2 (0.2) | 14.7 (0.5) | 15.5 (0.4) | 2.12 | 0.714 | |||||
| No | 15.0 (0.2) | 14.6 (0.4) | 14.8 (0.2) | 15.2 (0.6) | 14.2 (0.5) | |||||||
| Difference | 0.5 (0.2) | 0.050 | 1.0 (0.5) | 0.036 | 0.4 (0.3) | 0.178 | -0.5 (0.7) | 0.465 | 1.3 (0.6) | 0.033 | ||
Note: Results are presented for the whole sample only as the rural–urban interaction was not significant in this analysis.
All analyses are adjusted for confounding variables.