Table 3. The associations between food insecurity with hunger and psychological distress score (10–50): Multivariate gender- and age-based linear analysis.
| Gender | Age | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women | Men | 50–64 years | ≥65 years | ||||||
| Variable | β | (SE) | β | (SE) | β | (SE) | β | (SE) | |
| Hunger (ref: Never/rarely (no food insecurity)) | |||||||||
| Sometimes (Moderate food insecurity) | 0.736 | (0.198)*** | 0.747 | (0.294)* | 0.848 | (0.221)*** | 0.506 | (0.243)* | |
| Most of the time/always (Severe food insecurity) | 1.594 | (0.359)*** | 2.326 | (0.474)*** | 1.478 | (0.368)** | 2.511 | (0.467)*** | |
| Adjusted R2 | 0.211 | 0.249 | 0.214 | 0.244 | |||||
Coefficients (β) are adjusted for clustering, and robust standard errors are presented in parentheses. All sub-group analyses were adjusted for age, gender, rural/urban locality, marital status, household size, employment status, income, level of education, social support, alcohol intake, physical activity, self-rated health, chronic conditions and functional impairment. The 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to quantify non-specific psychological disorders [20].
***p < 0.001
**p < 0.005
*p < 0.05