The impact of natural disasters on dietary behaviors

Disasters may have significant impacts on diet behaviors due to a lack of food resources, however, research on this field was rather limited. This study aims to explore the potential impact of disasters on individuals’ fruit and vegetable consumption. Findings of this study may be helpful for disaster preparation, nutrition assistance, and disaster management policy. Individual-level data (N= 351,229) from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2011 survey were merged with county-level disaster declaration data from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) based on disaster duration, interview month and residential county. Multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear models were conducted to examine the impact of different types of disasters on self-reported daily fruit, 100% pure fruit juice, beans, green vegetables, orange vegetables, other vegetables and overall vegetables consumption frequencies, adjusting for individual covariates. Statistical significance was considered if p value is less than 0.01. Flood was consistently found to alter the consumption frequency of vegetable subgroups among affected people. No strong associations between disasters and daily fruit and overall vegetable consumption frequency was identified at either nation or state levels. Disasters may influence adults aged 65 years and older disproportionately. This study has design and measurement limitations. More research with improved data collection is needed to add to the knowledge of effects of disasters on dietary behaviors.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Community Health

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Ji, Mengmeng

Contributors dc:contributor

• An, Ruopeng

• Natural Disaster
• Dietary Behaviors

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Mengmeng Ji

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105807

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105807