IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pgph00/0000479.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Systematic review of food insecurity and violence against women and girls: Mixed methods findings from low- and middle-income settings

Author

Listed:
  • Abigail M Hatcher
  • Sabrina Page
  • Lele Aletta van Eck
  • Isabelle Pearson
  • Rebecca Fielding-Miller
  • Celine Mazars
  • Heidi Stöckl

Abstract

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a global human rights and public health concern. Food insecurity is a sign of severe poverty, and likely to heighten women’s vulnerability to VAWG and men’s perpetration of it. However, the extent of the association and the multiple pathways between food insecurity and VAWG are not well understood. We systematically assessed peer reviewed quantitative and qualitative literature to explore this in low- and middle-income countries. Fixed effects meta-analysis was used to synthesize quantitative evidence. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. From a search of 732 titles, we identified 23 quantitative and 19 qualitative or mixed-methods peer-reviewed manuscripts. In a meta-analysis of 21 cross-sectional studies with 20,378 participants, food insecurity was associated with doubled odds of reported VAWG (odds ratio [OR] = 2.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.82–3.10). This finding was consistent for both women’s experience or male perpetration of VAWG. Qualitative and mixed-methods papers offered insight that underlying conditions of inequitable gender norms, economic deprivation, and social isolation frame both food insecurity and VAWG. Food insecurity may trigger survival behaviors due to household stress and lack of meeting expected gender roles, which leads to VAWG. VAWG exposure may lead to food insecurity if women are more impoverished after leaving a violent household. Potential protective factors include financial stability, the involvement of men in VAWG programming, transformation of gender norms, and supporting women to develop new networks and social ties. Strong evidence exists for a relationship between food security and VAWG. Future funding should target causal directions and preventive options through longitudinal and interventional research. Strategies to ensure households have access to sufficient food and safe relationships are urgently needed to prevent VAWG.

Suggested Citation

  • Abigail M Hatcher & Sabrina Page & Lele Aletta van Eck & Isabelle Pearson & Rebecca Fielding-Miller & Celine Mazars & Heidi Stöckl, 2022. "Systematic review of food insecurity and violence against women and girls: Mixed methods findings from low- and middle-income settings," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(9), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0000479
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000479
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000479
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000479&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000479?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathryn P Derose & Denise D Payán & María Altagracia Fulcar & Sergio Terrero & Ramón Acevedo & Hugo Farías & Kartika Palar, 2017. "Factors contributing to food insecurity among women living with HIV in the Dominican Republic: A qualitative study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Roy, Shalini & Hidrobo, Melissa & Hoddinott, John F. & Koch, Bastien & Ahmed, Akhter, 2019. "Can transfers and behavior change communication reduce intimate partner violence four years post-program? Experimental evidence from Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 1869, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Ruchira Tabassum Naved & Mahfuz Al Mamun & Kausar Parvin & Samantha Willan & Andrew Gibbs & Marat Yu & Rachel Jewkes, 2018. "Magnitude and correlates of intimate partner violence against female garment workers from selected factories in Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jenevieve Mannell & Laura J Brown & Esme Jordaan & Abigail Hatcher & Andrew Gibbs, 2024. "The impact of environmental shocks due to climate change on intimate partner violence: A structural equation model of data from 156 countries," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Lissandra Amorim Santos & Rafael Pérez-Escamilla & Camilla Christine de Souza Cherol & Aline Alves Ferreira & Rosana Salles-Costa, 2023. "Gender, skin color, and household composition explain inequities in household food insecurity in Brazil," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-21, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Humayun Kabir & Myfanwy Maple & Md. Shahidul Islam & Kim Usher, 2022. "The Paradoxical Impacts of the Minimum Wage Implementation on Ready-made Garment (RMG) Workers: A Qualitative Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(2), pages 545-569, June.
    2. Quisumbing, Agnes & Ahmed, Akhter & Hoddinott, John & Pereira, Audrey & Roy, Shalini, 2021. "Designing for empowerment impact in agricultural development projects: Experimental evidence from the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) project in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. Nasser Sharareh & Ching-Yu Wang & Andrea S. Wallace & Jorie Butler, 2023. "Indications of food insecurity in the content of telephone calls to a community referral system," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(4), pages 1-11, April.
    4. Alane Celeste-Villalvir & Denise D Payan & Gabriela Armenta & Kartika Palar & Amarilis Then-Paulino & Ramón Acevedo & Maria Altagracia Fulcar & Kathryn P Derose, 2023. "Exploring gender differences in HIV-related stigma and social support in a low-resource setting: A qualitative study in the Dominican Republic," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Groves, Allison K. & Gebrekristos, Luwam T. & Stoner, Marie C.D. & Gómez-Olivé, F Xavier & Kahn, Kathleen & Pettifor, Audrey E., 2024. "Assessing the durability of a cash transfer on physical intimate partner violence and sexual relationships among adolescent girls and young women in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    6. Salauddin Tauseef, 2022. "Can Money Buy Happiness? Subjective Wellbeing and Its Relationship with Income, Relative Income, Monetary and Non-monetary Poverty in Bangladesh," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1073-1098, March.
    7. Deshira D Wallace & Amarilis Then-Paulino & Gipsy Jiménez Paulino & Flabia Tejada Castro & Stephanie Daniela Castro & Kartika Palar & Kathryn P Derose, 2023. "The co-management of HIV and chronic non-communicable diseases in the Dominican Republic: A qualitative study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(7), pages 1-17, July.
    8. Kausar Parvin & Mahfuz Al Mamun & Andrew Gibbs & Rachel Jewkes & Ruchira Tabassum Naved, 2018. "The pathways between female garment workers’ experience of violence and development of depressive symptoms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Perova,Elizaveta & Johnson,Erik Caldwell & Mannava,Aneesh & Reynolds,Sarah Anne & Teman,Alana Hinda, 2021. "Public Work Programs and Gender-Based Violence : Evidence from Lao PDR," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9691, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pgph00:0000479. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: globalpubhealth (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.