In March, Dr. Young had the honor of presenting her findings about the role of food insecurity and depression in women’s economic development at this year’s U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. She presented results from our Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian pregnant and postpartum cohorts.
Dr. Young described a bidirectional relationships between food insecurity and depression: lack of quality food in sufficient quantities can diminish feelings of self-worth, which in turn hinders economic output and decreases overall production and/or household buying power. Understanding these links and addressing both problems is imperative for developing better policies and practices.
A more comprehensive overview of the discussion can be found here.