Investigating the relationship between household food insecurity and pregnancy complications

Abstract Introduction : Food insecurity, is an important health and social problem that affects millions of people around the world every day. Meanwhile, assessing the food insecurity situation in pregnant women is more important. IConsidering the contradictory results in previous studies and also the limited studies on the relationship between food insecurity and pregnancy complications in Iran, this study investigates the relationship between household food insecurity and pregnancy complications in mothers method This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 550 mothers referring to Yasuj health centers. Two food safety questionnaires from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and general information were used to collect data. Independent t-test and chi-square tests were used in statistical analysis. Results According to the findings, 62.3% of mothers had food security. And 37.7% of them had food insecurity, of which 27.1% were in the category of non-hunger insecurity, 9% were in the category of moderate hunger and 1.6% were in the category of severe hunger. In this study, various complications such as gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension were investigated and their relationship with food insecurity was assessed. There was a significant relationship between food insecurity and diabetes and blood pressure during pregnancy. Conclusion The results of the present study showed that living in food insecure households is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and gestational hypertension.