The longitudinal reciprocal relationship between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among Korean elderly who live in poverty: application of auto-regressive cross-lagged model

ABSTRACT Previous studies have reported that food insecurity influences depression, with the reverse reported as well. The study explores the reciprocal causal relationship between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among impoverished Korean elderly. The data were derived from the 8th wave to the 10th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study. A total of 3,476 subjects aged 60 years or older were analysed. An auto-regressive cross-lagged model with three-year longitudinal data was conducted for the analysis. For all waves, the reciprocal causal relationships between food insecurity and depressive symptoms were examined. The findings have implications for gerontological policy and practice, especially for the Korean impoverished elderly.