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Community and International Nutrition

Household Food Insecurity Is Associated with Childhood Malaria in Rural Haiti^1,2

³ University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; ⁴ Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment, Camp Perrin, Haiti; ⁵ Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia; and ⁶ Office of Community Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06510

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is heavily affected by food insecurity and malaria. To find out if these 2 conditions are associated with each other, we studied a convenience sample of 153 women with children 1–5 y old in Camp Perrin, South Haiti. Household food insecurity was assessed with the 16-item Escala Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Seguridad Alimentaria (ELCSA) scale previously validated in the target communities. ELCSA's reference time period was the 3 mo preceding the survey and it was answered by the mother. Households were categorized as either food secure (2%; ELCSA score = 0), food insecure/very food insecure (42.7%; ELCSA score range: 1–10), or severely food insecure (57.3%; ELCSA score range: 11–16). A total of 34.0% of women reported that their children had malaria during the 2 mo preceding the survey. Multivariate analyses showed that severe food insecure was a risk factor for perceived clinical malaria (odds ratio: 5.97; 95% CI: 2.06–17.28). Additional risk factors for perceived clinical malaria were as follows: not receiving colostrum, poor child health (via maternal self-report), a child BMI <17 kg/m², and child vitamin A supplementation more than once since birth. Findings suggest that policies and programs that address food insecurity are also likely to reduce the risk of malaria in Haiti.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rafael.perez-escamilla{at}uconn.edu.

Manuscript received 15 April 2009. Initial review completed 2 July 2009. Revision accepted 16 August 2009.

Published online 9 September 2009.