Overview

Abstract (English)

Is smoking tobacco associated with higher rates of food insecurity? Food insecurity refers to a range of experiences – from concerns about running out of food before having enough money to buy more to not eating for a whole day due to a lack of food and money for food. Food insecurity is most prevalent in households with lower incomes, and food insecure families can find themselves in difficult situations in which they have to decide whether to “heat or eat.” Researchers from the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT), the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Toronto examine the relationship between smoking and food insecurity to see if families are also faced with the decision to either “smoke or eat.” This report analyzes 2007-2017 data from the Canadian Community Health Survey to determine whether: * Smoking raises the risk of being food insecure or * Smoking has no cause effect on food insecurity due to shared characteristics between smokers and food insecure households. The results show that households with smokers are more likely to be food insecure, and food insecurity has a stronger relationship with poor health and well-being than tobacco use. When the impact of smoking on food insecurity is removed from analysis, the report finds that families with younger respondents, females, individuals with low levels of education, renters, urban dwellers, Aboriginals, and recent immigrants are most likely to be food insecure. The authors recommend that policies aiming to decrease tobacco use should focus on implementing programs such as counselling, rather than higher taxation on cigarettes, as the latter could reduce the purchasing power of families’ incomes, including income available for food. ABSTRACT This paper draws on population-representative data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to estimate the association between tobacco use and food insecurity in households in New Brunswick. We find that households with smokers are more likely to be food insecure. We also find that food insecurity has larger effects on self-reported measures of health and well-being than tobacco use. INTRODUCTION Both food insecurity and tobacco use are associated with many health and social risks. Food insecurity is a consequence of household budget volatility and income inadequacy. Smoking behaviour is hypothesized to crowd out income available for food/nutrition, raising the risk of food insecurity. METHOD This paper draws on cross-sectional population-representative data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) for the years 2007 to 2017 to estimate the association between tobacco use and food insecurity in households in New Brunswick. Using New Brunswick data, we investigate smoking behaviour as an independent correlate of food security after adjusting for other determinants, and we compare these results to Ontario and the rest of Canada. Based on the number of affirmative responses in the Household Food Security Survey Module, households are classified as food secure or food insecure (either moderate or severe). RESULTS We find that households with smokers are more likely to be food insecure, and smoking appears to be an independent determinant of food insecurity. We present evidence to show that food insecurity has a stronger relationship with poor health than smoking. DISCUSSION Outside the impact of smoking, families with younger respondents, females, individuals with low levels of education, renters, urban dwellers, Aboriginals, and recent immigrants are more likely to be food insecure. Regarding the possible ramifications of smoking cessation policies, policy makers need to acknowledge the income adequacy environment of lower-income households in New Brunswick. It is possible that actions that lower purchasing power (e.g., cigarette taxes) increase the prevalence of food insecurity.

Abstract (French)

Please note that abstracts only appear in the language of the publication and might not have a translation.