Rahavard Salamat Journal

Introduction and Objective: Depression is a mental disease which has significant negative effects of lives. Food insecurity means insufficient and unsafe access to food in order to have a healthy and active life which can affect the physical and mental health of the society In Iran, no study has ever covered The Study of Association between food insecurity and depression. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between families' food insecurity and mothers' depression of primary School students in northern city of Bandar Anzali.

Material & Methods: This research is a cross-sectional and analytic study which is done on 4oo high school girls, from 9 years old to 11, in 12 state schools through random sampling. In order to determine the demographic features and food security of the families, and mothers' depression, mothers were invited to have an interview based on a socio-economical factors questionnaires, families' food security questionnaire (USDA) and Beck depression questionnaire; then, the study data was analyzed by using Chi-Square  test and logistic regression.

Results: The rates of mothers' depression and food insecurity were 18.5 % and 51 %. Food insecurity had significant statistical relationship with the mothers' depression (P<0.0001); where 29.4% of mothers from families with foods insecurity and only 7.1 % mothers from families with food security suffer from depression. 

Conclusion: Regarding the high level of depression among families with food insecurity, it seems necessary to investigate the effective factors causing food insecurity among families and its consequence, mothers' depression.