Maternal food insecurity is positively associated with postpartum mental disorders in Ontario, Canada

Background — Household food insecurity has been associated with pregnancy complications and poorer birth outcomes in the United States and with maternal mental disorders in the United Kingdom, but there has been little investigation of the effects of food insecurity during this life stage in Canada.

Objectives — Our objective was to examine the relationship between the food insecurity status of women during pregnancy and maternal and birth outcomes and health in infancy in Canada.

Methods — We drew on data from 1998 women in Ontario, Canada, whose food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Security Survey Module on the Canadian Community Health Survey, cycles 2005 to 2011–2012. These records were linked to multiple health administrative databases to identify indications of adverse health outcomes during pregnancy, at birth, and during children's first year of life. We included women who gave birth between 9 months prior and 6 months after their interview date, and for whom infant outcome data were available. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to compare outcomes by maternal food security status, expressed as adjusted relative risks (aRR) with 95% CIs.

Results — While pregnant, 5.6% of women were marginally food insecure and 10.0% were moderately or severely food insecure. Food insecurity was unrelated to pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes, but 26.8% of women with moderate or severe food insecurity had treatment for postpartum mental disorders in the 6-month postpartum period, compared to 13.9% of food-secure women (aRR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.40–2.46). Children born to food-insecure mothers were at elevated risk of being treated in an emergency department in the first year of life (aRR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.01–1.38).

Conclusions — Maternal food insecurity during pregnancy in Ontario, Canada, is associated with postpartum mental disorders and a greater likelihood of infants being treated in an emergency department.