Pharmaceutical Formulas. P. F. Vol. I be
✦ LIBER ✦
A comparison of the nutritional status and food security of drug-using and non-drug-using Hispanic women in Hartford, Connecticut
✍ Scribed by Himmelgreen, David A.; Pérez-Escamilla, Rafael; Segura-Millán, Sofia; Romero-Daza, Nancy; Tanasescu, Mihaela; Singer, Merrill
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 115 KB
- Volume
- 107
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-9483
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This study compared food insecurity, nutritional status (as measured through anthropometry and dietary intake), and food preparation patterns of low-income Puerto Rican female out-of-treatment drug users with that of low-income Puerto Rican women who reported no drug use. A convenience sample of 41 drug users was compared with 41 age-matched non-drug-users from inner-city Hartford, Connecticut. A culturally appropriate food frequency questionnaire was administered and anthropometric measurements were taken. The findings suggest a high degree of poverty among all study participants, but in particular among drug users. Drug users were more likely than the controls to be food insecure (P Ͻ 0.05) and to be exposed to increasingly severe food sufficiency problems. The daily frequency of consumption of vegetables was lower (P ϭ 0.03) for drug users than non-drug-users. Conversely, the frequency of consumption for sweets/desserts was significantly higher for drug users than the controls (P ϭ 0.0001). Drug users, who were classified as food insecure were less likely to consume vegetables (P ϭ 0.004) and fish (P ϭ 0.03) than were controls who were food insecure. When comparing drug users with controls, the former group reported consuming fewer meals during a usual week than the latter group (P Ͻ 0.0001). Drug users were more likely to fry foods (P ϭ 0.02) while the controls were more likely to bake (P ϭ 0.005), boil (P ϭ 0.02), and steam (P ϭ 0.002) foods. All anthropometric measurements, except for height, were significantly lower for drug users. The results show that drug users generally maintain poorer nutritional status than non-drug-users. Nutrition interventions as part of drug treatment are needed.
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