Abstract
Background
In Brazil, it has been envisioned significant advances in food and nutrition policies. Despite this, the country has millions of people under conditions of Food Insecurity (FI), with recognized difficulties of access to adequate food.
Objective
This research aimed to investigate the association between FI with anthropometric and socioeconomic statusof farmers of the municipalities in the Middle-South region of Ceará.
Method
It is a cross-sectional study that used a socioeconomic questionnaire and the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale to assess the situation of FI and the Body Mass Index (BMI) for assessing the nutritional status. The tests of Mann-Whitney and Chi-square were used, considering a significant p-value (p<0.05).
Results
86 farmers participated in this research, including 39.5% of those who wereFI and 41% overweight. The association was identified between the situation of FI in families with the greatest number of individuals (p<0.05), the presence of individuals aged under18 years (p<0.05) and lower per capita income (p=0.001).
Conclusion
It could be conclude that the FI was strongly associated to household crowding and income among farmers’ families Thus, the public policies directed to the farmers’ health should consider the vulnerability of low-income families and families with children as well as young people in their composition, enabling access to adequate food.
Keywords:
food security; farmers; nutrition assessment
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