Prevalence and determinants of food insecurity during the 2022 COVID-19 related lockdown in Shanghai

Figures & data

Table 1. Items and domains of Food Insecurity measured in the study.

Questions	Domains
1. Did you worry that your household would not have enough food?	Anxiety and uncertainty about household food supply
2. Were you or any household member not able to eat the kinds of foods you preferred because of a lack of resources?	Insufficient Quality (includes variety and preference of the type of food)
3. Did you or any household member have to eat a smaller meal than you felt you needed because there was not enough food?	Insufficient food intake and its physical consequences
4. Did you or any household member have to eat fewer meals in a day because there was not enough food?	Insufficient food intake and its physical consequences
5. Did you or any household member go a whole day and night without eating anything because there was not enough food?	Insufficient food intake and its physical consequences

Table 2. Characteristics of the sample and bivariate analyses.

	Overall		Food secure		Food insecure
	N	%	N	%	N	%	χ^2 (df)	p
Total	3230	100%	980	33.28%	2250	66.72%
Covariate
Ethnicity							8.45 (1)	0.009
Han	3126	96.94%	953	33.71%	2173	66.29%
Other	104	3.06%	27	19.72%	77	80.27%
Gender							25.16 (2)	0.018
Male	1657	55.37%	533	37.01%	1124	62.99%
Female	1563	44.37%	443	28.64%	1120	71.36%
Other	10	0.26%	4	30.65%	6	69.35%
Educational level							16.93 (2)	0.277
Secondary school or lower	471	14.74%	121	32.21%	350	67.79%
Complete high school	714	22.54%	226	39.57%	488	60.43%
Complete college or higher	2045	62.73%	633	31.27%	1412	68.73%
Household size							19.96 (3)	0.116
Living alone	330	9.66%	100	25.95%	230	74.05%
2–3 people	1887	60.29%	576	34.79%	1311	65.21%
4–6 people	924	27.51%	285	34.06%	639	65.94%
>6 people	89	2.55%	19	16.71%	70	83.29%
Marital status							24.54 (3)	0.032
Single	1079	27.34%	331	27.96%	748	72.04%
Married/cohabitating	2032	68.87%	601	34.59%	1431	65.41%
Divorced	106	3.27%	43	48.17%	63	51.83%
Widowed/other	13	0.53%	5	44.494%	8	55.06%
Key Correlates
Age categories							196.18 (4)	0.000
9–25 years	671	16.14%	217	28.85%	454	71.15%
26–35 years	1346	36.93%	321	23.95%	1025	76.05%
36–45 years	703	18.97%	223	30.59%	480	69.41%
46–55 years	354	9.72%	141	38.33%	213	61.67%
55 years or older	156	18.26%	78	56.17%	78	43.83%
Income categories							8.35 (4)	0.570
<4000 CNY	351	8.81%	99	26.83%	252	73.17%
4000–8000 CNY	904	31.39%	248	34.35%	656	65.65%
8001–15000 CNY	996	32.75%	302	34.42%	694	65.58%
15001–30000 CNY	685	19.07%	227	31.34%	458	68.66%
30000 CNY +	294	8.08%	104	36.01%	190	63.99%
Lockdown-related loss in income							342.43 (2)	0.000
None	729	30.76%	346	56.00%	383	44.00%
<50%	1393	38.59%	413	25.82%	980	74.18%
>50%	1108	30.65%	221	19.86%	887	80.14%
Migration status							279.32 (3)	0.000
Shanghai local	1004	38.22%	445	50.16%	559	49.84%
Permanent migrant with Hukou	436	11.90%	134	28.68%	302	71.32%
Permanent migrant without Hukou	929	25.00%	235	24.42%	694	75.58%
Temporary migrant	861	24.89%	166	18.44%	695	81.56%
Employment status							277.81 (3)	0.000
Employed	2430	67.24%	736	28.66%	1694	71.34%
Unemployed	369	10.50%	58	15.84%	311	84.16%
Retired	101	15.36%	57	63.90%	44	36.10%
Student	328	6.90%	129	36.75%	199	63.25%
Missing	2	0.00%	-	-	-
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	t	p
Bonding social capital	11.45	2.87	12.24	2.54	11.05	2.94	6.29	0.000
Bridging social capital	10.49	3.37	11.30	3.18	10.09	3.39	4.09	0.000
Preparedness	2.92	1.11	3.22	0.80	2.77	1.22	7.33	0.000
Received social support	6.22	2.73	6.30	2.58	6.18	2.80	0.68	0.496

Note: Data shown are raw numbers and weighted percentages as N(%) for categorical variables and weighted mean and standard deviations for continuous variables. There were two missing values for employment status. Bonding capital, bridging capital, preparedness, and social support scores were calculated as the average scores for each participant’s response to all related questions multiplied by the number of questions.

Table 3. Adjusted logistic models for overall state of food insecurity and three sub-domains among 3230 Shanghai residents from 1 April 2022 to 1 June 2022.

	Overall Food Insecurity		Anxiety and uncertainty about household food supply		Insufficient quality		Insufficient food intake and its physical consequences
	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI
Age categories
19–25 years	ref		ref		ref		ref
26–35 years	0.97	0.66, 1.41	0.92	0.67, 1.28	0.89	0.64, 1.22	1.02	0.71, 1.45
36–45 years	0.95	0.61, 1.49	0.77	0.52, 1.14	0.89	0.61, 1.31	0.85	0.57, 1.29
46–55 years	0.82	0.49, 1.35	0.89	0.56, 1.40	1.12	0.70, 1.78	0.58	0.36, 0.93
55 years or older	1.20	0.59, 2.43	2.24	1.11, 4.53	2.11	1.04, 4.27	0.56	0.25, 1.25
Lockdown-related loss in income
None	ref		ref		ref		ref
<50%	2.60	1.95, 3.47	2.31	1.71, 3.12	1.87	1.38, 2.52	2.71	1.98, 3.70
>50%	3.09	2.18, 4.39	2.81	2.00, 3.95	1.28	1.64, 3.17	2.75	1.95, 3.86
Migration status
Shanghai local	ref		ref		ref		ref
Permanent migrant with Hukou	2.16	1.53, 3.06	1.34	0.98, 1.83	1.26	0.91, 1.75	1.67	1.17, 2.37
Permanent migrant without Hukou	2.06	1.51, 2.81	1.65	1.23, 2.21	1.92	1.44, 2.57	2.04	1.52, 2.75
Temporary migrant	2.74	1.97, 3.80	1.82	1.34, 2.47	2.66	1.97, 3.61	2.51	1.83, 3.43
Employment status
Employed	ref		ref		ref		ref
Unemployed	1.43	0.97, 2.09	1.13	0.83, 1.56	1.36	0.98, 1.88	1.34	0.92, 1.96
Retired	0.69	0.33, 1.44	0.57	0.24, 1.35	0.59	0.26, 1.32	1.06	0.43, 2.62
Student	1.01	0.65, 1.55	0.83	0.56, 1.24	1.25	0.83, 1.87	0.87	0.57, 1.32
Bonding social capital	0.93	0.88, 0.99	0.95	0.92, 0.99	0.95	0.90, 0.99	0.93	0.89, 0.97
Bridging social capital	0.94	0.89, 0.99	0.93	0.89, 0.97	0.91	0.87, 0.95	0.93	0.89, 0.98
Preparedness	0.66	0.57, 0.76	0.66	0.60, 0.73	0.68	0.61, 0.76	0.62	0.55, 0.71

Note: Odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals from logistic regression analyses are reported. Bolded numbers indicate significant findings at p < 0.05 level. Models are adjusted for ethnicity, gender, educational level, household size, and marital status.

Table 4. Result from multiple linear regression analysis with overall food insecurity as a continuous variable.

	Coefficient	t	95% Confidence Interval
Age categories
19–25 years	ref	–	–
26–35 years	−0.10	−0.38	−0.62, 0.42
36–45 years	−0.55	−1.79	−1.16, 0.05
46–55 years	−0.81	−2.23	−1.52, −0.10
55 years or older	−0.97	−2.23	−1.83, −0.12
Lockdown-related loss in income
None	ref	–	–
<50%	1.61	5.48	1.04, 2.19
>50%	1.97	7.04	1.42, 2.51
Migration status
Shanghai local	ref	–	–
Permanent migrant with Hukou	0.75	3.50	0.33, 1.18
Permanent migrant without Hukou	1.21	5.08	0.74, 1.67
Temporary migrant	1.58	6.12	1.07, 2.08
Employment status
Employed	ref	–	–
Unemployed	1.02	3.84	0.50, 1.54
Retired	0.69	1.26	−0.38, 1.77
Student	−0.36	−1.13	−0.99, 0.27
Bonding social capital	−0.15	−4.22	−0.22, −0.08
Bridging social capital	−0.17	−4.97	−0.24, −0.10
Preparedness	−0.90	−11.58	−1.05, −0.74

Note: Bolded numbers indicate significant findings at p < 0.05 level. Models are adjusted for ethnicity, gender, educational level, household size, and marital status.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, BJH. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.