household food insecurity scores are higher among adults infected with covid-19: a cross-sectional online study among an iranian population

Introduction: food insecurity has negative impacts on health, including the function of the immune system. the association between food insecurity and covid- 19 infection rates has not been fully understood. this study aimed to examine whether food-insecure households are more vulnerable to covid-19 infection. materials and methods: this online cross- sectional study was conducted on 2,871 iranian adults (31 provinces), from august to september 2020. demographic and socio-economic information was collected using a questionnaire. the household food insecurity access scale (hfias) was used for assessing household food insecurity. the data analysis was performed by spss.22, using chi-square test, anova test, and multinomial logistic regression model. results: the findings indicated that healthcare personnel were at higher risk of covid-19 (ci = 1.90, 7.05; or = 3.66; p < 0.001). it was also shown that hfias scores were significantly higher among infected people compared to non-infected (ci = 1.00, 1.05; or = 1.03; p < 0.05). women were at lower risk of infection compared to men (ci = 0.41, 0.87; or = 0.60; p < 0.05). conclusions: based on the results, in addition to long-term policies to improve food security, policymakers are recommended to implement short- term policies to reduce the vulnerability of the community to covid-19 virus.