Food Skills and Their Relationship with Food Security and Dietary Diversity Among Asylum Seekers Living in Norway

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of food skills on food security and dietary diversity among asylum seekers living in Norwegian reception centers.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Eight asylum reception centers.

Participants: A total of 205 asylum seekers (131 men and 74 women) recruited through convenience sampling.

Main outcome measures: Food skills were measured using questions from the Canadian Rapid Response on Food Skills and divided into cooking skills and shopping skills. Food security was measured with the 10-item version of the Radimer/Cornell Scale. The dietary diversity score was based on a 24-h recall.

Analysis: Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression.

Results: Cooking skills were associated with adequate dietary diversity (adjusted odds ratio, 2.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-4.31), but not with adult food insecurity (adjusted odds ratio. 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.26-1.53). Shopping skills were not associated with either measure of dietary diversity or adult food insecurity. Women had higher cooking skills than men, but there were no gender differences in shopping skills.

Conclusions and implications: Food skills had a limited association with food security and dietary diversity. Further research is needed to identify food skills beneficial for asylum seekers and to address the multiple causes of food insecurity.

Keywords: Norway; asylum seekers; dietary diversity; food security; food skills.