Food insecurity in recently resettled African refugee communities

据联合国估计，目前世界上有1000万难民。这些人中有一小部分有资格在美国重新安置，但一旦这些人被重新安置到发达国家，他们的健康和福祉就鲜为人知了。理论家假设，虽然从暴力和战争中解放出来，难民将面临贫困和随之而来的饮食习惯和寻求健康行为的转变，这可能对健康产生负面影响。这项研究将侧重于公共卫生的一个特别重要的方面：粮食不安全。粮食不安全是不良饮食习惯的良好指标，与包括体重过重在内的一系列健康结果有关。目的是量化两个难民社区粮食不安全的严重程度，检查粮食不安全（及其后遗症）的文化、社会和经济相关性，并评估当前粮食不安全衡量工具的有效性。本项目采用两个地点、两个族群的纵向研究设计。数据收集方法包括焦点小组、参与者观察、调查和体重和身高的人体测量。这将是迄今为止对这些人口进行的最大规模的纵向研究，也是为数不多的衡量居住在美国的非洲难民重新安置对健康影响的研究之一。这些数据对于解决对收容难民的费用和负担的关切是必不可少的。更广泛的影响对难民福祉和收容难民的费用的关切是普遍存在的，人们对健康和福祉的社会决定因素的兴趣日益增加。这个项目将大大增加我们对这些领域的理解。该项目将有助于填补重新安置难民在公共卫生营养知识方面的巨大空白，因为它不仅旨在确定谁面临粮食不安全的风险最大，而且还旨在确定原因，这样做将提供有用的方案见解。这一信息对于设计干预措施和健康教育方案尤其重要。这项研究还将解决一个紧迫的问题，即如何最好地衡量新抵达难民的粮食不安全状况。确保粮食安全比额表是一项有效的贫困指标，对于监测和宣传以及确定粮食不安全的决定因素至关重要。几名难民也将被聘为面试官。该项目的结果将分发给代表难民的专业团体和重新安置机构；这些团体可以利用这些信息进行宣传，并监测若干健康结果的趋势。

The United Nations estimates that that there are currently 10 million refugees in the world. A small number of these individuals are eligible for resettlement in the USA, but little is known about the health and well being of these individuals once they are resettled into developed countries. Theorists hypothesize that while freed from the violence and war that characterize refugee situations, refugees will face poverty and concomitant shifts in dietary practice and health seeking behavior, which may negatively affect health. This study will focus on one particularly important aspect of public health: food insecurity. Food insecurity is a good indicator of poor dietary practice and is associated with a range of health outcomes including excess body weight. The aim is to quantify the magnitude of food insecurity in two refugee communities, examine the cultural, social, and economic correlates of food insecurity (and its sequelae), and assess the validity of current food insecurity measurement tools. The project utilizes a two site, two ethnic group longitudinal study design. Methods of data collection include focus groups, participant observation, a survey, and anthropometric measures of weight and height. It will be the largest longitudinal study to date of these populations, and one of the few measuring the health impact of resettlement among African refugees living in the USA. Such data is imperative to addressing concerns about the costs and burdens of hosting refugees.Broader ImpactConcern over the well-being of refugees and the costs of hosting refugees are widespread, and there is growing interest in the social determinants of health and well-being. This project will add significantly to our understanding in each of these areas. The project will help fill a huge gap in knowledge about public health nutrition among resettled refugees, as it aims to not only identify who is most at risk of food insecurity but why, and in doing so would offer useful programmatic insights. This information will be particularly important for designing interventions and health-education programs. The research would also address the pressing issue of how to best measure food insecurity among newly arrived refugees. Ensuring that a food security scale is a valid indicator of deprivation is of enormous importance for monitoring and advocacy and for identifying determinants of food insecurity. Several refugees will also be hired as interviewers. The results that come from the project will be distributed to both professional groups that represent refugees and to resettlement agencies; the information can be used by these groups for advocacy and to monitor trends in several health outcomes.