Prevalence and determinants of food insecurity in migrant Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean households in Ottawa, Canada

Food insecurity (FI) is an important social determinant of health and is linked with higher health care costs. There is a high prevalence of FI among recent migrant households in Canada. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence of FI in Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean migrants in Ottawa, and to explore determinants of FI in that population.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 190 mothers born in Sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean living in Ottawa and having a child between 6 and 12 years old. Health Canada’s Household Food Security Survey Module was used to evaluate participants’ food security in the past 12 months. χ² tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to measure determinants of FI (n=182).

A very high rate of FI (45.1 percent) was found among participants. When numerous determinants of FI were included in a multivariate model, household FI was associated with Caribbean origin, low education attainment, lone motherhood, living in Canada for five years or less and reliance on social assistance.

These findings highlight the need for FI to be explicitly addressed in migrant integration strategies in order to improve their financial power to purchase sufficient, nutritious and culturally acceptable foods. Enhancing migrants’ access to affordable child care and well-paid jobs, improving social assistance programs and providing more affordable subsidized housing programs could be beneficial.