Table 3.

Prevalence of FI severity levels by sociodemographic characteristics, health characteristics and food bank visiting patterns (n = 1033).

Variable	N	Food secure (no “yes”)		Mildly food insecure (1–3 times “yes”)		Moderately food insecure (4–7 times “yes”)		Severely food insecure (8 times ‘yes’)		Correlations, p value
		n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Age
≤40 Years	234	51	21.8 a	72	30.8	87	37.2 a	24	10.3 a	rτ = −0.224 p < 0.000
41–50 Years	206	41	19.9 a	70	34.0	73	35.4 a	22	10.7 a
51–65 Years	368	110	29.9 a	127	34.5	105	28.5 a	26	7.1 a,b
≥66 Years	225	106	47.1 b	91	40.4	22	9.8 b	6	2.7 b
Gender
Female	589	167	28.4	216	36.7	174	29.5	32	5.4 a	V = 0.108 p = 0.008
Male	444	141	31.8	144	32.4	113	25.5	46	10.4 b
Country of birth
Germany	576	164	28.5	179	31.1 a	181	31.4 a	52	9.0 a	V = 0.124 p = 0.001
Other	456	144	31.6	180	39.5 b	106	23.2 b	26	5.7 b
Highest completed education
No graduation	49	13	26.5	19	38.8	10	20.4 a,b	7	14.3	rτ = − 0.105 p = 0.004
Graduation at 10th grade or earlier	565	154	27.3	181	32.0	185	32.7 b	45	8.0
Graduation at 12th/13th grade (university entrance)	371	127	34.2	144	38.8	78	21.0 a	22	5.9
Household composition
Single, no children	559	156	27.9 a	193	34.5	159	28.4	51	9.1	V = 0.098 p = 0.004
Couple, no children	142	59	41.5 b	50	35.2	26	18.3	7	4.9
Couple, children	135	40	29.6 a,b	51	37.8	38	28.1	6	4.4
Single-parent	82	15	18.3 a	35	42.7	26	31.7	6	7.3
Other (e.g. shared living)	84	30	35.7 a,b	22	26.2	29	34.5	3	3.6
Body mass index
Underweight or normal weight	280	81	28.9	87	31.1	87	31.1	25	8.9	V = −0.019 p = 0.520
Overweight	277	84	30.3	105	37.9	68	24.5	20	7.2
Obesity	330	95	28.8	119	36.1	90	27.3	26	7.9
Smoking status
No	644	212	32.9 a	251	39.0 a	154	23.9 a	27	4.2 a	V = 0.219 p < 0.000
Yes	384	94	24.5 b	108	28.1 b	131	34.1 b	51	13.3 b
Self-rated health status
Good/very good	350	128	36.6 a	112	32.0	92	26.3	18	5.1 a	rτ = 0.129 p < 0.000
Moderate	464	144	31.0 a	164	35.3	128	27.6	28	6.0 a
Bad/very bad	212	35	16.5 b	82	38.7	66	31.1	29	13.7 b
Food bank visits
<4×/Month	327	103	31.5	107	32.7	90	27.5	27	8.3	rτ = 0.001 p = 0.971
4×/Month or more	696	204	29.3	252	36.2	192	27.6	48	6.9
Duration of food bank use
<1 Year	306	78	25.5 a	98	32.0	97	31.7	33	10.8 a	rτ = − 0.093 p = 0.001
≥1 Year	723	229	31.7 b	261	36.1	189	26.1	44	6.1 b

Different letters indicate statistically significant differences (p < 0.05, Bonferroni) per column within the variable category.

Survey conducted between May and August of 2015 among food bank users in Germany.