Poor diet may contribute to health risks for women of reproductive age with disabilities
Research Highlights:
- Women with self-reported disabilities were almost twice as likely to rate their diet as poor compared to women without disabilities.
- Women with self-reported disabilities were nearly 2 times more likely to experience food insecurity compared to women without disabilities.
This news release contains updated data from the researchers compared to the abstract.
(NewMediaWire) -
While diet is a potentially modifiable behavior critical for women of reproductive age, limited research is available regarding the potential differences in women's diets categorized by disability status.
"Women with disabilities may face specific obstacles in improving their diet due to barriers related to their disabilities including medical conditions or physical limitations, as well as the availability of food," said
To examine the connections among disability, diet quality and diet-related factors for women who are of reproductive age, researchers examined data detailing 3,507 women ages 18-44 who participated in the
A questionnaire about whether the women had serious difficulties with sensory, physical and cognitive functions was used to determine disability status. The Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) assessed the women's diet quality. The HEI-2015 is composed of 13 components, including fruits, vegetables, protein foods, whole grains, dairy, sodium and added sugar. Women also self-reported on their diets by quantifying the frequency of eating fast food, or frozen or preprepared meals; their participation in public food assistance programs; and/or whether they were the primary meal planner or food shopper in the household.
The analysis found that when compared to women without disabilities, women with any self-reported disabilities were:
- almost two times more likely (1.9) to rate the quality of their diet as "poor";
- almost one-and-a-half times (1.4) more likely to have eaten frozen meals or pizza five or more times during the previous month;
- almost two times (1.9) more likely to report "very low" or "low" food security;
- almost one-and-a-half times (1.4) more likely to not use public food assistance despite being eligible; and
- one-and-a-half times as likely (1.5) to report someone else in their household as the primary shopper or meal planner.
"We hope the findings of this study will increase awareness among health care professionals about the importance of evaluating and discussing diet and diet-related issues with their patients and patients' family members. We also hope these results stimulate more research on this topic since there is so little available," said Deierlein.
"For the first time to my knowledge, researchers evaluated disability status as an indicator of whether or not individuals had a healthy diet. Unfortunately, the women with disabilities reported lower diet quality, more food insecurity and also lower physical activity levels," said
The researchers noted several important limitations to the study, including that NHANES is a cross-sectional study and that most data were self-reported by the study participants. Information about disability cause or severity were not detailed. The study's sample size was limited, and researchers could not examine associations of diet by specific disability type. Additionally, information about diet was based on recall of food and beverage intake from the previous day.
Co-authors are
No funding was reported for this study.
Additional resources:
- Multimedia, including a video perspective interview with American Heart Association Past President (2012-2013)
Donna K. Arnett , M.S.P.H., Ph.D., B.S.N., is available on the right column of the release link https://newsroom.heart.org/news/poor-diet-may-contribute-to-health-risks-for-women-of-reproductive-age-with-disabilities?preview=d40a030ea594b6a28aa3de741e1bf80b - AHA Scientific Sessions 2021 Online Program Planner
- The American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations
- Healthy Eating
- Food insecurity's long-term health consequences
- Food insecurity rates high among people with heart disease
- Eating more plant foods may lower heart disease risk in young adults, older women
- The Southern diet - fried foods and sugary drinks - may raise risk of sudden cardiac death
- High blood pressure, unhealthy diets in women of childbearing age
- For more news from Scientific Sessions 2021, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #AHA21
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