FOOD INSECURITY AND GLAUCOMA

 

Food insecurity is a complex social determinant of health (SDOH) that refers to the household-level economic and social conditions of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.

Food insecurity is typified by alternating periods of food adequacy and scarcity, creating a cyclical stressor that has been proposed to have complex health effects through altered feeding behaviors, nutritional status, and financial decision-making.

Food insecurity has been proposed to lead to a broad set of behaviors that increase an individual’s risk for disease and disease progression.

These feeding behaviors predispose individuals to metabolic dysregulation, reduced antioxidant intake, and chronic inflammation, which may further exacerbate the impact on individual physical and mental health. This could cause chronic eye diseases such as GLAUCOMA.

78,964 participants from The National Institutes of Health All of Us (AoU) Research Program were included in a study to assess the association of food insecurity with chronic eye diseases. Among the participants, 9732 (12.4%) had food insecurity. [1]

Of the total 78,695 participants, 2095 (2.7%) had GLAUCOMA, 1398 (1.8%) had AMD, 1127 (1.4%) had DR, and 10,135 (12.9%) had cataracts.

Participants who reported food insecurity had significantly higher odds of GLAUCOMA (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18e1.72, P 0.001) compared with those without food insecurity. Participants had a 43% increased likelihood of GLAUCOMA.

No significant associations were observed between food insecurity and AMD (aOR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.67e1.21, P ¼ 0.544), DR (aOR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.93e1.42, P ¼0.180), or cataracts (aOR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.87e1.08, P ¼ 0.635) in adjusted regression models.

REFERENCE:

[1] Talebi R, Yu F, Tseng VL, Coleman AL. Association between food insecurity and chronic eye disease in the National Institutes of Health’s All of US Research Program. Ophthalmology Science. 2025;5(3):100697.