Food insecurity in Canadian households with children who have undergone liver, kidney or multi-visceral organ transplantation
Food Insecurity (FI) or the lack of access to a safe, affordable and healthy food supply is critical to promote optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence.
For the child who has undergone life-saving organ transplantation, this is concerning; lack of a healthy food supply has the potential to contribute to the onset of obesity, reduced health quality of life (HRQOL) and mental health, all of which can lead to more health problems.
In adults with chronic disease, even marginal food insecurity can directly lead to more health problems.
Many factors lead to an increased risk for food insecurity in households in Canada including number of children in the household, poverty, lack of affordable housing, geographical isolation, single parent households, biological sex and gender.
It is currently unknown the extent to which FI affects children who have undergone organ transplantation and how this affects the mental health of the affected child and their parents/caregivers.
This pilot study will contribute to this major gap in the literature by providing evidence of:
prevalence/severity of household FI
The underlying mechanisms contributing to household FI
the impact on parental/child mental health, HRQOL, Diet Quality (DQ )and
identifying potential strategies that will inform larger intervention trials to address FI in Canadian households with children who receive organ
Tx. Ethics approval has been obtained (Pro00144464).
