Abstracts

Rationale: Food insecurity occurs when there is limited or intermittent access to nutritionally adequate, safe and acceptable foods, accessed in socially acceptable ways (Anderson 1990). We compared the presence of food security within a nationally representative sample of individuals reporting epilepsy compared to the general population. Methods: The Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 3.1 is a cross-sectional survey that uses a stratified cluster sample design to obtain information on Canadians 12 years of age or older. Data on food security was compared for those who reported having epilepsy and the remainder of the population. Results: Of the 110,521 eligible survey respondents, 645 reported having epilepsy. Food security was considerably less likely to be reported amongst those also reporting epilepsy, 89.2% as compared to those not reporting epilepsy with a rate of 94.9%, accounting for an Odds Ratio of 0.45 (95% CI 0.34, 0.58, p<0.001). Binary bivariate prediction of food security within the population of respondents reporting epilepsy included: education, marital status, income, family size, owning their dwelling and self-perceived health. The lack of food security appears to be a common feature of chronic disease, as it could be demonstrated for other chronic diseases: epilepsy, asthma, and diabetes. Conclusions: Canadians reporting epilepsy are considerably less likely to be food secure. Being less food secure is not unique to the epilepsy experience as it appears to common to a number of chronic diseases.