Nutrition Knowledge, English Adequacy, Women's Education, and Food Insecurity Among Syrian Refugees in Florida

Objectives The objective of the study was to measure food security among Syrian refugees residing in urban and rural areas in Florida. Women's education, English proficiency, and nutrition knowledge were assessed to indicate their effects on food security in this population. Methods One-on-one interview questionnaires were administered to Syrian refugee households residing in Florida (n=80: n=43 in rural areas and n=37 in urban areas). The main outcomes were food insecurity, nutrition knowledge, English adequacy, and women's education. Results The main outcome of this study was the food security status among Syrian refugees residing in Florida. Among the total households, 80% were food insecure, and food insecurity was greater in rural areas (60.9%) than in urban areas (39.1%). The majority (57.5%) of participants scored fair nutrition knowledge. One-way frequency analysis showed that 75% of households had inadequate English. Around 23.7% of Syrian refugee women had a high school diploma or higher. Among these women, 68.4% were residing in urban areas. The chi-squared test showed significant differences in women's education in rural and urban areas (p=0.03). Nutrition knowledge was higher in urban areas compared to rural areas. The chi-squared test showed a significant difference in nutrition knowledge in urban and rural areas (p=0.04). The result of the multivariate logistic regression model indicated that the type of residence, rural vs urban areas, had an inverse significant effect on food security after controlling for our variables. Syrian refugees in rural areas had 79.9 greater odds of being food insecure compared with urban areas (odds ratio: 0.201, 95% CI: 0.053-0.758, p=0.01). Conclusions Nutrition knowledge, English adequacy, and women's education may be less important than types of residence. The type of residence is a contributing factor to food insecurity in Syrian refugees residing in Florida. A larger sample size would allow a clearer understanding of the relation of our variables with food insecurity.