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Author Notes:

Correspondence: Abdulrahman M El-Sayed ame2145@columbia.edu

AME conceived the analysis, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript.

CH conceived the study, coordinated data collection, and edited the manuscript.

FT, AT, and JAC coordinated data collection and edited the manuscript.

SG coordinated data collection, advised on data analysis, and edited the manuscript.

Finally, all authors read and approved the final manuscript

We thank Mr. Peter Rockers and Ms. Magdalena Paczkowski for their help and support with the data.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Subjects:

Research Funding:

This project was funded by NIH grants GM07863, DA 017642, DA 022720, MH082729 and MH 078152.

Household food insecurity and symptoms of neurologic disorder in Ethiopia: An observational analysis

Journal Title:

BMC Public Health

Volume:

Volume 10, Number 802

Publisher:

, Pages 1-10

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

Background Food insecurity (FI) has been shown to be associated with poor health both in developing and developed countries. Little is known about the relation between FI and neurological disorder. We assessed the relation between FI and risk for neurologic symptoms in southwest Ethiopia. Methods Data about food security, gender, age, household assets, and self-reported neurologic symptoms were collected from a representative, community-based sample of adults (N = 900) in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. We calculated univariate statistics and used bivariate chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression models to assess the relation between FI and risk of neurologic symptoms including seizures, extremity weakness, extremity numbness, tremors/ataxia, aphasia, carpal tunnel syndrome, vision dysfunction, and spinal pain. Results In separate multivariate models by outcome and gender, adjusting for age and household socioeconomic status, severe FI was associated with higher odds of seizures, movement abnormalities, carpal tunnel, vision dysfunction, spinal pain, and comorbid disorders among women. Severe FI was associated with higher odds of seizures, extremity numbness, movement abnormalities, difficulty speaking, carpal tunnel, vision dysfunction, and comorbid disorders among men. Conclusion We found that FI was associated with symptoms of neurologic disorder. Given the cross-sectional nature of our study, the directionality of these associations is unclear. Future research should assess causal mechanisms relating FI to neurologic symptoms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Copyright information:

© 2010 El-Sayed et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/).

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