Not having enough food may have had a greater negative effect on mental health in the United States than unemployment or loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study led by Penn State researchers.
The study, published in PLOS One, examined how loss of income or employment and food sufficiency impacted the mental health of Americans during the pandemic. The researchers found that not having enough food — or food insufficiency — was more strongly linked to poorer mental health than losing income, and both food insufficiency and lower income mattered more than unemployment alone.
The team also found that families that were already food insecure before the pandemic experienced much larger mental health effects than those who became food insecure once the pandemic hit.
Linlin Fan, associate professor of agricultural economics and co-author on the paper, said the results suggest that job loss alone may not be the best signal of who is struggling mentally during a crisis.
“During the pandemic, effects of unemployment on mental health may have been buffered by factors such as unemployment insurance and stimulus payments,” Fan said. “This doesn’t mean that unemployment is harmless, but rather that in a crisis like the pandemic, mental health effects may depend on whether families can still afford food and basic needs, rather than from job status alone.”
During the pandemic, the researchers said, many Americans faced several hardships at once, including job loss, lower income and trouble getting enough food. At the same time, rates of anxiety and depression rose. The team wanted to better understand which of these hardships mattered most for mental health.
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