The Incidence of Food Insecurity Through Food Access on Women's Emotional Mental Disorder in Rural Area

Background/Aims: Anxious as a sign of mental emotional disorder is one of the symptoms experienced by food-insecure people. Anxious feelings about not fulfilling daily needs can cause mental emotional disorders. If this disorder is left continuously it will cause stress and have an effect on physical health. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the incidence of individual food insecurity with mental emotional disorders in rural women. Methods: The study design was cross sectional with a total of 146 adult women (71 non-disorder, 72 mental emotional disorders) aged 35 to 55 years. Status of mental emotional disorders used Self Report Questionnaire, while status of food insecurity at the individual level used the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Results: The result showed that FIES questions could be used well in the target group (reliability>0.07). Moreover, data showed that 45.4% of respondents had no indication of food insecurity, 28.7% of respondents were of mild level food insecurity, 16.8% of respondents were of moderate level food insecurity, and 9.1% of respondents were of severe food insecurity.The bivariate test results showed that there was a relationship between moderate level of food insecurity with the incidence of emotional mental disorders (p < 0.05). Conclusion: It was known that people who had feel difficulties in accessing food in moderate level has OR 4,138 at risk of developing mental emotional disorder than people who have no difficulty food access. Further research really needs to be encouraged to know things that cause mental emotional disorders in terms of food access.