Food Insecurity is Longitudinally Associated with Depressive Symptoms Among Homeless and Marginally-Housed Individuals Living with HIV

Depression and food insecurity are prevalent among people with HIV (PLHIV) and contribute to poor HIV outcomes. Longitudinal data can help clarify the effect of food insecurity on depression among PLHIV in the United States. We assessed the longitudinal association of food insecurity with symptoms of depression using validated measures among participants living with HIV from the Research on Access to Care in the Homeless cohort in San Francisco. We followed 346 participants for a median of 28 months. Over half of participants (55.0 %) were food insecure and 35.8 % had symptoms of depression. In adjusted models, severe food insecurity in the previous period was associated with increased depressive symptom severity (b = 1.22; p < 0.001). The association remained statistically significant in models including participant fixed effects. Severe food insecurity was also longitudinally associated with a binary variable indicating probable depression. Efforts to increase access to and participation in food security safety net programs for PLHIV could improve depression.