Impact of the Multifactorial Crisis on Food Security, Care, and Quality of Life of Older People in Cuba

Abstract In this article, we analyze the challenges affecting Cuban society, driven by a high rate of demographic aging and a severe multifactorial crisis, connecting food insecurity and the care crisis. We explore the socioeconomic and social policy factors that explain the state of vulnerability to post-COVID-19 shortages in people over sixty years of age. This article is based on a study carried out jointly by the Food Monitor Program and Cuido60, in which people over sixty were interviewed in four provinces. We identified the worsening of structural conditions and the gradual abandonment of egalitarian distributive criteria in social policies, which have harmed the protection and care of older people in Cuba, especially older women, who face greater difficulties in obtaining adequate, stable, and healthy nutrition, as well as safely accessing services such as energy and drinking water.