TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding biopsychosocial health outcomes of syndemic water and food insecurity
T2 - Applications for global health
AU - Workman, Cassandra L.
AU - Brewis, Alexandra
AU - Wutich, Amber
AU - Young, Sera
AU - Stoler, Justin
AU - Kearns, Joshua
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
PY - 2021/1/6
Y1 - 2021/1/6
N2 - Household food and water insecurity often co-occur, and both can lead to malnutrition, psycho-emotional stress, and increased risk of infectious and chronic diseases. This can occur through multiple pathways including poor diet and inadequate sanitation. In this perspective, we discuss the potential advantages of a syndemic approach to understanding the consequences of food and water insecurity, that is, one that makes possible the assessment of their mutually enhancing effects on health. Syndemic theory considers the concerted, deleterious interaction of two or more diseases or other health conditions, such as psycho-emotional stress, that result from structural inequities. We therefore call for an approach that links localized morbidity of individual- or household-level experiences of concurrent food and water insecurity to larger structural and contextual forces/risk environments. Such an approach permits the investigation of food and water insecurity as suites of risk, such that certain disease outcomes serve as signals for interlinked stressors. For example, the use of a syndemic perspective could help explain the persistence of conditions like diarrhea or stunting after food or water interventions; that is, existing approaches may be too narrow in scope to protect individuals from multiple and overlapping environmental and biopsychosocial stressors.
AB - Household food and water insecurity often co-occur, and both can lead to malnutrition, psycho-emotional stress, and increased risk of infectious and chronic diseases. This can occur through multiple pathways including poor diet and inadequate sanitation. In this perspective, we discuss the potential advantages of a syndemic approach to understanding the consequences of food and water insecurity, that is, one that makes possible the assessment of their mutually enhancing effects on health. Syndemic theory considers the concerted, deleterious interaction of two or more diseases or other health conditions, such as psycho-emotional stress, that result from structural inequities. We therefore call for an approach that links localized morbidity of individual- or household-level experiences of concurrent food and water insecurity to larger structural and contextual forces/risk environments. Such an approach permits the investigation of food and water insecurity as suites of risk, such that certain disease outcomes serve as signals for interlinked stressors. For example, the use of a syndemic perspective could help explain the persistence of conditions like diarrhea or stunting after food or water interventions; that is, existing approaches may be too narrow in scope to protect individuals from multiple and overlapping environmental and biopsychosocial stressors.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099721546&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099721546&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4269/AJTMH.20-0513
DO - 10.4269/AJTMH.20-0513
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33146108
AN - SCOPUS:85099721546
SN - 0002-9637
VL - 104
SP - 8
EP - 11
JO - American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
JF - American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
IS - 1
ER -