The longitudinal reciprocal relationship between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among Korean elderly who live in poverty: application of auto-regressive cross-lagged model

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have reported that food insecurity influences depression, with the reverse reported as well. The study explores the reciprocal causal relationship between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among impoverished Korean elderly. The data were derived from the 8th wave to the 10th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study. A total of 3,476 subjects aged 60 years or older were analysed. An auto-regressive cross-lagged model with three-year longitudinal data was conducted for the analysis. For all waves, the reciprocal causal relationships between food insecurity and depressive symptoms were examined. The findings have implications for gerontological policy and practice, especially for the Korean impoverished elderly.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• depressive symptoms
• depression
• impoverished elderly
• structural equation modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Raw data were generated at Ministry of Health and Welfare in South Korea. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author Jayoung Cho on request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.

Notes on contributors

Jayoung Cho

Jayoung Cho, PhD, is lecturer at the Department of Social Welfare and Counseling, Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea. Her research interests include social welfare administration, elderly, and family in poverty.