Study finds Third-World hunger kills Canadians
Print Edition
Canadians who cannot afford regular meals are more likely to die early, according to a study released, showing that people are dying from hunger even in wealthy countries.
The study of more than half a million Canadian adults found that hunger was linked to raised mortality from all causes of death except cancer.
But infectious diseases, unintentional injuries and suicide were twice as likely to kill those who faced severe problems finding enough food as those who do not, said the paper, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“It’s like we found Third-World causes in a First-World country,” said lead author Fei Men, a postdoctoral fellow of the University of Toronto.
“Food insecure people in Canada are facing problems like infections and drug poisoning that we would expect people from developing countries to be facing.
“The results are pretty striking to us as well. In the developed world such as Canada, food insecurity can still cause deaths.”
More than 4 million people in Canada struggle to get enough to eat, official data shows, a problem that ranges from running out of food or skipping meals to compromising on quantity and quality.
Not having enough to eat leads to both “material deprivation and psychological distress” which in turn results in chronic inflammation and malnutrition, it said.
They are also less able to manage chronic conditions.
“(If they have) diabetes, they are more likely to not adhere to their treatment so it might have much bigger and harmful effect on them,” Men said.
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