Table 2. The associations between food insecurity with hunger and psychological distress score (10–50): Multivariate pooled linear analysis.
| Variable | Model 1 | Model 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| β | (SE) | β | (SE) | ||
| Hunger (ref: Never/rarely (no food insecurity) | |||||
| Sometimes (Moderate food insecurity) | 0.946 | (0.136)*** | 0.705 | (0.160)*** | |
| Most of the time/always (Severe food insecurity) | 1.828 | (0.244)*** | 1.813 | (0.280)*** | |
| Age (in years) | -0.190 | (0.007)** | |||
| Gender (ref: men) | 0.149 | (0.172) | |||
| Rural/urban residence (ref: rural) | -0.206 | (0.148) | |||
| Marital status (ref: married) | 0.637 | (0.159)*** | |||
| Household size | -0.005 | (0.014) | |||
| Employment status (ref: unemployed) | -0.215 | (0.161) | |||
| Income (in Ghana Cedis) | 0.185 | (0.178) | |||
| Level of education (ref: Primary/none) | |||||
| Secondary | -0.263 | (0.263) | |||
| Higher | -0.045 | (0.315) | |||
| Social support (ref: high) | -0.109 | (0.051)* | |||
| Alcohol intake (ref: no) | 0.080 | (0.167) | |||
| Physical activity (ref: no) | -0.230 | (0.159) | |||
| Self-assessed health (ref: Very good) | |||||
| Good | -0.062 | (0.209) | |||
| Fair | 0.283 | (0.214) | |||
| Poor | 0.914 | (0.243)*** | |||
| Chronic conditions (ref: no) | 0.155 | (0.147) | |||
| Functionally impaired | 0.270 | (0.189) | |||
| Adjusted R2 | 0.212 | ||||
Coefficients (β) are adjusted for clustering, and robust standard errors are presented in parentheses. The 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to quantify non-specific psychological disorders [20]. Model 1 was adjusted for age and gender only; Model 2 was adjusted for all potential confounders.
***p < 0.001
**p < 0.005
*p < 0.05.