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Little is understood about the economic factors that have influenced the nutrition transition from traditional to store-bought foods that are typically high in fat and sugar amongst people living in the Canadian Arctic. This study aims to determine the pattern of household food expenditure in the Canadian Arctic.
Local food prices were collected ov...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... on costs for traditional meats were obtained from local hunters through the Hunters and Trappers Organization and accounted for the cost of equipment and supplies. All food items in the QFFQ were catego- rized into six main food groups [fruit and vegetables, grains and potatoes, dairy, traditional meats, non- traditional meats, and non-nutrient-dense foods (NNDF)] based on a strategy developed for previous publications for this study [15,16] (Table 1). Food items in the NNDF category included all foods that did not fall into other food groups and supplied less than 5% of the reference daily in- takes per serving for protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A, C, B 1 , B 2 , and niacin [17]. ...
Citations
... The studies included in this review had a multitude of aims (Tables 2, 3, and 4). While most studies were conducted solely to monitor food prices in a specific location/s [33,39,42,46,47,52,54,56,57,59,64,67,71,75,80,81,88,89,104,106,108,109,114], others aimed to monitor food price changes over time [53,63,74,83,93,97,111,127], assess food prices as a function of income, socioeconomic status, or welfare assistance [9, 19, 20, 33, 36-38, 40, 41, 66, 69, 70, 77, 84-86, 90-92, 94, 100, 110, 115-117, 122]; assess food price in relation to geographic distance [19,77,91,92,94,98]; compare perceptions of food price with actual food prices [68,101,107]; and relate food price with a health outcome [34,35,37,40,47,58,70,72,78,105,116,117,124,125], compare the price of healthy or unhealthy foods/diets [9, 20, 34, 43, 50, 51, 55, 60-65, 76, 85, 86, 93-96, 99, 102, 110-112, 120, 121, 123, 124, 126], assess diet costs for a specific population [82,118], compare food prices between brands [79], compare approaches for estimating dietary costs [32], or understand how prices impact consumption [44]. Only seven studies specifically aimed to collect data to inform policy strategies and/ or community interventions to improve population health [10,11,49,80,87,103,113]. ...
... Characteristic N Country USA [11, 47 Australia [9,10,19,20,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94] 25 UK [95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102] 8 Canada [103][104][105][106][107][108][109] 7 New Zealand [110][111][112][113] 4 Germany [71,114,115] 3 Portugal [116][117][118] 3 Netherlands [119,120] 2 Sweden [121,122] 2 Japan [123] 1 Croatia [124] 1 Demark [125] 1 France [126] 1 Context ...
Purpose of Review
Poor diets are a leading risk factor for chronic disease globally. Research suggests healthy foods are often harder to access, more expensive, and of a lower quality in rural/remote or low-income/high minority areas. Food pricing studies are frequently undertaken to explore food affordability. We aimed to capture and summarise food environment costing methodologies used in both urban and rural settings.
Recent Findings
Our systematic review of high-income countries between 2006 and 2021 found 100 relevant food pricing studies. Most were conducted in the USA ( n = 47) and Australia ( n = 24), predominantly in urban areas ( n = 74) and cross-sectional in design ( n = 76). All described a data collection methodology, with just over half ( n = 57) using a named instrument. The main purpose for studies was to monitor food pricing, predominantly using the ‘food basket’, followed by the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores (NEMS-S). Comparatively, the Healthy Diets Australian Standardised Affordability and Price (ASAP) instrument supplied data on relative affordability to household incomes.
Summary
Future research would benefit from a universal instrument reflecting geographic and socio-cultural context and collecting longitudinal data to inform and evaluate initiatives targeting food affordability, availability, and accessibility.
... Inuit traditionally had diets rich in vitamins A and D, (170,171) and have recently undergone a dietary transition that has resulted in reduced consumption of traditional/country foods and intake of nutrients important for immunity. (170)(171)(172)(173)(174) Food insecurity may also hinder individuals from adhering to public health guidelines when working or accessing community food programs. (175) Housing and infrastructure play an important role in containing and managing infectious disease outbreaks at individual, household/family, and community levels. ...
Background. Arctic Indigenous communities are unique, geographically remote and/or isolated, and currently among the most susceptible populations in the world to the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Since colonization, Indigenous communities have been particularly susceptible to infectious disease outbreaks.
Methods. This study reviewed current knowledge regarding social determinants of health (SDH) and pandemics in Arctic Canada and highlighted the implications of the current COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families, and communities in Arctic Canada.
Studies published in English and French pertaining to SDH or pandemics in the Canadian Arctic were located using key search words in three databases (PubMed, Medline, and CINAHL) as well as reference tracking of relevant articles up to September 2021. Studies were categorized according to infectious disease (COVID-19, H1N1 influenza, and tuberculosis) or SDH (healthcare access, food security, mental health, socioeconomic status, cultural continuity, housing, and community infrastructure). NVivo was used to theme and sub-theme findings of selected studies.
Results. One hundred studies were included in this scoping review. Two articles related to COVID-19, five to influenza, and five to TB; 27 healthcare access, 19 to food security, 17 to mental health, nine to SES, seven to cultural continuity, six to housing, and three to community infrastructure. Documented lessons learned from previous pandemics in Arctic communities provides evidence to inform public health policies and culturally safe programs for the current COVID-19 pandemic where many SDH exist as challenges for Indigenous communities. The SDH included limited healthcare access, food insecurity, mental health challenges, low socioeconomic status, limited cultural considerations in healthcare, and suboptimal housing. These findings are also relevant to Indigenous communities in other Arctic regions facing similar challenges due to the pandemic.
Conclusions.: It is essential to understand how SDH underlie the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities in the Arctic and to utilize this information to inform critical policy and practice decisions for COVID-19 prevention, management, and treatment. This review indicated that many SDH are unique to Canadian Arctic settings and pose specific challenges for the prevention and management of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19.
... The high burden of unhealthy eating among children in these communities, and the limited success at improving this, point to the need for further adaptation of program delivery, for example, by partnering with stakeholders to improve the accessibility and affordability of a variety of healthy foods options. 35 The COVID-19 pandemicrelated impact on food security, coupled with decreased access to fresh produce due to inter-provincial travel and transportation restrictions, may have led to reliance on processed and ultra-processed foods, 36,37 the likely drivers of the changes observed between 2018 and 2020/21. The pronounced decrease in vegetable and fruit consumption and the increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages observed during the pandemic illustrate the volatility of not yet firmly established healthy behaviours and the vulnerability of these northern communities to external stressors as evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Introduction
Northern communities in Canada experience a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases including mental illness. To mitigate the growing health inequalities, an ongoing Comprehensive School Health program promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours and mental health and well-being was expanded to rural and remote northern communities. We report on the program’s impact on knowledge, attitudes, lifestyle behaviours (healthy eating, physical activity, screen time), weight status and the mental health and well-being of elementary school students during the first four years of implementation.
Methods
Following a repeated cross-sectional design, we surveyed 440, 352 and 384 Grade 4 to 6 students (9–12 years old) from eight schools in 2016, 2018 and 2020/21, respectively. Students were approximately equally represented by girls and boys.
Results
Between 2016 and 2018, students reported modest increases in vegetable and fruit consumption and dietary variety; declines in screen time; no changes in physical activity; and declines in attitudes toward healthy lifestyle and in mental health and well-being. Between 2018 and 2020/21, lifestyle behaviours deteriorated substantially, while attitudes and mental health and well-being continued to decline.
Conclusion
A program that was successful in socioeconomically disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods had a favourable, though modest, impact on selected lifestyle behaviours, but not on attitudes and mental health and well-being, in rural and remote northern communities. In light of cultural differences and logistical challenges in Canada’s North, systematic and proactive adaptations to local contexts, increased intensity, and longer program delivery are essential to facilitate sustainable improvements in lifestyle behaviours and mental health and well-being.
... It differs from information about personal income in that it is a measure of the economic conditions of the entire household and that it is a measure of what the income is spent on by ways of durable goods [29]. Similar measures have been used elsewhere in the Arctic [42]. A population health survey from 2005 to 2010 showed a significant association between household asset score and income reported by Statistics Greenland based on information from the tax authorities: the disposable income was DKK 103,500 per person in the lowest household asset category compared with DKK 195,900 in the highest category (unpublished results). ...
Background
Amongst the indigenous Greenlandic Inuit, the experience of food insecurity has been attributed to a lack of money to buy enough food of sufficient quality to sustain a family, although a preference for alcohol and tobacco over food has also been cited. The purpose of the article was to compare dietary patterns and expenditure on food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco between survey participants who reported food insecurity and those who did not.
Methods
A countrywide cross-sectional health survey was carried out among 1886 adult Greenlandic Inuit in 2018. Diet was estimated by a food frequency questionnaire. Food insecurity status was based on the household hunger scale. Analyses were carried out by univariate general linear models adjusted for age, sex and social position.
Results
Nine percent of the participants reported food insecurity. Food insecurity was higher among younger participants, men and participants with low social position. Food insecure participants more often chose an unhealthy dietary pattern (43% vs. 32%) and they reported a higher energy intake. The food insecure spent the same amount of money on food as other participants but less on nutritious food and more on non-nutritious food. The cost per kilojoule (kJ) of the food of the food insecure was lower than that of the food secure (DKK 8.0 and 9.0 per 1000 kJ, respectively). The food insecure participants also spent considerably more on alcohol and tobacco.
Conclusions
The results suggest that it is not only unemployment and lack of money that creates food insecurity and unhealthy dietary patterns in Greenland. Food insecure participants gave higher priority to buying non-nutritious food, alcohol and tobacco than did food secure participants. There seems to be at least two population subgroups in Greenland with poverty and substance use, respectively, as the immediate determinants for food insecurity. The results are important for the design of interventions against food insecurity and unhealthy dietary patterns.
... Households on income support were more likely to consume traditional food and non-nutrient-dense foods (19) . Indigenous survey participants with higher levels of formal education spent more on fruit and vegetables and less on traditional food than those with lower levels of formal education (20) . According to the most recent population health survey in Greenland in 2018, the locally harvested food items that provided the most energy included blubber (on seal meat or eaten with dried fish), Greenland halibut, caribou meat, seal meat and dried fish and meat (Bjerregaard unpublished results). ...
... Our study did not compare the cost of food baskets, and the discrepancy between our study and the cited studies regarding diets are probably explained by two factors, namely, that participants eating a healthy diet consumed less than those eating an unhealthy diet and the fact that as much as 20 E% of the unhealthy diet was accounted for by sugar-sweetened beverages, which are among the most expensive food items per 1000 kJ. The association between high social position and consumption of fruit, vegetables, fibre and fish and the association between low social position and nutrient-poor energy-dense diets have been found in numerous studies (11)(12)(13)(14)19,20) . ...
... The expenditure on food high in energy and low in nutrients (non-nutritious food) amounted to 155 DKK (21 Euro), which is 33·0 % of the total expenditure on food. This proportion is similar to the distribution in Arctic Canada, where non-nutrient-dense foods accounted for 33·8 % of the total food cost (20) . The detailed list of food groups showed that the top ten items accounted for twothirds of the total expenditure. ...
Objective
Dietary transition, obesity and risky use of alcohol and tobacco are challenges to public health among indigenous peoples. The aim of the article was to explore the role of social position in dietary patterns and expenditures on food and other commodities.
Design
Countrywide population health survey.
Setting
Greenland.
Participants
2436 Inuit aged 15+ years.
Results
Less than half of the expenditures on commodities (43 %) were used to buy nutritious food, and the remaining to buy non-nutritious food (21 %), alcoholic beverages (18 %) and tobacco (18 %). Participants were classified according to five dietary patterns. The cost of a balanced diet and an unhealthy diet was similar, but the cost per 1000 kJ was higher and the energy consumption was lower for the balanced diet. Participants with low social position chose the unhealthy pattern more often than those with high social position (40 % v . 24 %; P < 0·0001), whereas those with high social position more often chose the balanced alternative. Participants with low social position spent less money on the total food basket than those with high social position but more on non-nutritious food, alcohol and tobacco.
Conclusions
Cost seems to be less important than other mechanisms in the shaping of social dietary patterns and the use of alcohol and tobacco among the Inuit in Greenland. Rather than increasing the price of non-nutritious food or subsidising nutritious food, socially targeted interventions and public health promotion regarding food choice and prevention of excessive alcohol use and smoking are needed to change the purchase patterns.
... It differs from information about personal income in that it is a measure of the economic conditions of the entire household and that it is a measure of what the income is spent on by ways of durable goods [25]. Similar measures have been used elsewhere in the Arctic [37]. A population health survey from 2005-2010 showed a signi cant association between household asset score and income reported by Statistics Greenland based on information from the tax authorities: the disposable income was DKK 103,500 per person in the lowest household asset category compared with DKK 195,900 in the highest category (unpublished results). ...
Background
Amongst the indigenous Greenlandic Inuit, the experience of food insecurity has been attributed to a lack of money to buy enough food of sufficient quality to sustain a family, although a preference for alcohol and tobacco over food has also been cited. The purpose of the article was to compare dietary patterns and expenditure on food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco between survey participants who reported food insecurity and those who did not.
Methods
Countrywide cross-sectional health survey among 1886 adult Greenlandic Inuit in 2018. Diet was estimated by a food frequency questionnaire. Food insecurity status was based on the household hunger scale. Analyses were carried out by univariate general linear models adjusted for age, sex and social position.
Results
Nine percent of the participants reported food insecurity. Food insecurity was unevenly distributed according to age, sex and social position. Food insecure participants more often chose an unhealthy dietary pattern (43% vs. 32%) and they reported a higher energy intake. The food insecure spent the same amount of money on food as other participants but less on nutritious food and more on non-nutritious food. The cost per kJ of the food of the food insecure was lower than that of the food secure (DKK 8.0 and 9.0 per 1000 kJ, respectively). The food insecure participants also spent considerably more on alcohol and tobacco.
Conclusions
The results suggest that it is not only unemployment and lack of money that creates food insecurity and unhealthy dietary patterns in Greenland but probably also social inequality, lack of resources for planning, prioritising, living one’s daily life and limited knowledge about food. There seems to be at least two population subgroups in Greenland with poverty and substance use, respectively, as the immediate determinants for food insecurity, but behind these causes is a web of underlying social causes. The results are important for the design of interventions against food insecurity and unhealthy dietary patterns.
... Pervasive inadequacies and insufficiencies of dietary fiber, fatty acids, and several micronutrients are documented among Indigenous populations in remote areas [23,24]. Meanwhile, refined nonnutrient dense foods and beverages (hereafter beverages are captured with the term "food") represent a significant fraction of the total diet, and of monetary expenditure on market food [19,25,26]. These issues are also significant health challenges for Indigenous Peoples in nonremote areas, such as in urban centers [10]. ...
... Food prices collected from local retail outlets have, in combination with purchase and eating patterns described in population-based surveys, also been used to estimate actual and theoretical diet costs, and demand elasticities using diet optimization and econometric models [19,25,[104][105][106][107][108][109][110]. In the Canadian Arctic, remote Australian Aboriginal communities, and among Māori and Pacific households, non-nutrient-dense foods account for one-to-two-thirds of estimated diet costs [25,105,106]. ...
... Food prices collected from local retail outlets have, in combination with purchase and eating patterns described in population-based surveys, also been used to estimate actual and theoretical diet costs, and demand elasticities using diet optimization and econometric models [19,25,[104][105][106][107][108][109][110]. In the Canadian Arctic, remote Australian Aboriginal communities, and among Māori and Pacific households, non-nutrient-dense foods account for one-to-two-thirds of estimated diet costs [25,105,106]. Due to high consumption of discretionary items, the cost of theoretical diets modelled to meet nutritional requirements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori and Pacific households in NZ is often similar and, in some cases, less expensive than current, less-healthful, diets [104][105][106]. Importantly, current and theoretical diets may remain unaffordable for some households, notably those on income support [104] ...
Indigenous Peoples in high-income countries experience higher burdens of food insecurity, obesity, and diet-related health conditions compared to national averages. The objective of this systematic scoping review is to synthesize information from the published literature on the methods/approaches, findings, and scope for research and interventions on the retail food sector servicing Indigenous Peoples in high-income countries. A structured literature search in two major international databases yielded 139 relevant peer-reviewed articles from nine countries. Most research was conducted in Oceania and North America, and in rural and remote regions. Several convergent issues were identified across global regions including limited grocery store availability/access, heightened exposure to unhealthy food environments, inadequate market food supplies (i.e., high prices, limited availability, and poor quality), and common underlying structural factors including socio-economic inequality and colonialism. A list of actions that can modify the nature and structure of retailing systems to enhance the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthful foods is identified. While continuing to (re)align research with community priorities, international collaboration may foster enhanced opportunities to strengthen the evidence base for policy and practice and contribute to the amelioration of diet quality and health at the population level.
... Studies across the Arctic found that a number of indicators of socio-economic status (e.g. low education, unemployment, household crowding, receiving social assistance, public housing and having a home in need of major repairs) were associated with food insecurity and lower consumption of CF and fruits and vegetables (48,52,59,(81)(82)(83)(84)(85) . Successive studies in Nunavut found that availability and affordability of foods, high cost of harvesting CF, limited budgeting skills and unfamiliarity with nutritional content of different MF were driving food choices towards NNDF (81,82,86) . ...
... Household crowding and financial insecurity may also influence food purchasing and eating behaviours by forcing families to make more frequent, smaller grocery purchases (90) . Further, limited culinary knowledge of preparation methods for perishable MF may reduce their acceptability among Inuit households and encourage consumption of more convenient non-nutrient dense MF dishes (84) . ...
... Despite this, adverse cardiometabolic health outcomes have been steadily increasing in recent years to parallel rises in overweight and obesity. Successive cross-sectional studies across the Arctic have shown increasing trends in the prevalence of glucose intolerance and T2D (Table S4), although the general T2D burden remains lower than in other Indigenous populations in Canada (2,84,144,145,147,157,(160)(161)(162)(163) . However, among certain Inuit sub-populations (e.g. ...
Objective:
The current study undertook a systematic scoping review on the drivers and implications of dietary changes among Inuit in the Canadian Arctic.
Design:
A keyword search of peer-reviewed articles was performed using PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Academic Search Premier, Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database and High North Research Documents. Eligibility criteria included all full-text articles of any design reporting on research on food consumption, nutrient intake, dietary adequacy, dietary change, food security, nutrition-related chronic diseases or traditional food harvesting and consumption among Inuit populations residing in Canada. Articles reporting on in vivo and in vitro experiments or on health impacts of environmental contaminants were excluded.
Results:
A total of 162 studies were included. Studies indicated declining country food (CF) consumption in favour of market food (MF). Drivers of this transition include colonial processes, poverty and socio-economic factors, changing food preferences and knowledge, and climate change. Health implications of the dietary transition are complex. Micro-nutrient deficiencies and dietary inadequacy are serious concerns and likely exacerbated by increased consumption of non-nutrient dense MF. Food insecurity, overweight, obesity and related cardiometabolic health outcomes are growing public health concerns. Meanwhile, declining CF consumption is entangled with shifting culture and traditional knowledge, with potential implications for psychological, spiritual, social and cultural health and well-being.
Conclusions:
By exploring and synthesising published literature, this review provides insight into the complex factors influencing Inuit diet and health. Findings may be informative for future research, decision-making and intersectoral actions around risk assessment, food policy and innovative community programmes.
... Of these, 25 articles were excluded. The reasons for exclusion included: 13 articles did not measure cognition [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], five articles did not include beef consumption [45][46][47][48][49], three articles were reviews [50][51][52], two articles were a conference proceeding and a book [24,53] and two articles exclusively focused on premenopausal women or older adults [54,55]. The remaining eight articles that examined the effects of beef consumption on cognition among children and young adults were included [27][28][29][30][56][57][58][59]. ...
(1) Background: Undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency have been consistently linked to cognitive impairment among children and young adults. As a primary source of dietary animal protein, beef consumption holds the potential to improve diet quality and positively influence cognitive function. This study systematically reviewed evidence linking beef intake to cognition among children and young adults. (2) Methods: A literature search was conducted in seven electronic bibliographic databases for studies assessing the impact of beef consumption on cognition. (3) Results: We identified eight studies reporting results from five unique interventions. Two interventions were conducted in Kenya, two in the U.S. and one in four countries including Guatemala, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. Only one intervention employed a non-feeding control arm and found beef consumption to improve cognitive abilities compared to the control. However, the other interventions comparing beef consumption to other food types found no consistent result. (4) Conclusions: Evidence pertaining to the impact of beef consumption on cognition remains limited due to the small and heterogeneous set of studies. Future research should adopt a population representative sample and longer follow-up period, employ a non-feeding control arm and comprehensively measure nutrient intakes among study participants.
... While Inuit adults with higher socio-economic status, including higher levels of formal education, and individuals living in households with employed residents, are more likely to consume fruit and vegetables (Erber et al., 2010a;Hopping et al., 2010;Pakseresht et al., 2014), socioeconomic indicators have not been consistently related to higher consumption of nutrient-poor foods. In these contexts, factors such as availability and taste preference, for example, may bear greater influence on food expenditure patterns (Erber et al., 2010a;Pakseresht et al., 2014). ...
... While Inuit adults with higher socio-economic status, including higher levels of formal education, and individuals living in households with employed residents, are more likely to consume fruit and vegetables (Erber et al., 2010a;Hopping et al., 2010;Pakseresht et al., 2014), socioeconomic indicators have not been consistently related to higher consumption of nutrient-poor foods. In these contexts, factors such as availability and taste preference, for example, may bear greater influence on food expenditure patterns (Erber et al., 2010a;Pakseresht et al., 2014). Furthermore, improving socioeconomic conditions through education and employment may also place increased demands on time, which may limit opportunities for country food harvest. ...
Indigenous Peoples living in rural and remote regions of Canada, the United States, and Australia experience the highest food prices in each country. High food prices, low incomes, and limited access to nutritious perishable foods foster increased reliance on poor quality non-perishable foods. In northern Canada, Inuit experience food insecurity at over eight times the rate of the general Canadian population. This study aims to contribute to the evidence-base for informing food policy in remote northern communities by documenting food prices and investigating the economic dimensions of diet quality and nutrition in one region of Arctic Canada. A participatory food costing study was undertaken seasonally in six communities of the western Canadian Arctic during a 14-month period (late 2014 to early 2016). Community research assistants systematically collected food prices for a list of 106 market foods. Food prices in the region were markedly higher than the national average. The average cost of the Revised Northern Food Basket (to feed a family of four for one week) was CAD $410, over two times the equivalent cost of feeding a family of four in the capital city of Ottawa (CAD $192). Results from this study also provide evidence of significant price differentials between energy-dense nutrient-poor foods, and costlier nutrient-rich foods. Evidenced-based policy is needed to overcome the unique challenges of food retailing in remote northern environments. Such policies must be pursued with due recognition of community priorities and self-determination, and pursued in parallel to initiatives that enhance access to traditional (country) food.
