Anthropology Professor Sera Young’s research on food insecurity and women’s mental health was named the Paper of the Month by The Nutrition Society.
Sera Young
Young and a team of researchers carried out a nutrition-sensitive agroecology intervention called the Singida Nutrition and Agroecology Project (SNAP-Tz), which was designed to improve children’s health. They found that the intervention lowered the odds of probable maternal depression by 43%, and that reductions in food insecurity accounted for almost 10% of the decrease in odds for probable depression overall.
These findings are the first interventional evidence that proves reducing food insecurity can improve women’s mental health, which contributes to a growing understanding of the link between mental health and food security interventions.