Children living with adult smokers stand more chances to have a problem called food insecurity than those who live with non-smokers, a new study suggests.

Food insecurity, a term developed in the 1990’s, describes the incapability to access enough food in a socially acceptable way for every day of the year. It is associated with health through malnutrition, but also with sustainable economic development, environment, and trade. Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life.

Researchers at the New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center looked at data from more than 8,800 households with children. During the 3 years of follow-up, 15 percent of adults and 11 percent of children reported ‘food insecurity’, whereas 6 percent of adults and 1 percent of children reported severe food insecurity.

The findings showed that 23 percent of households with children had at least one tobacco consumer. The rate increased in low-income households – 32 percent. In such households (with only one smoker), 17 percent of children experienced food insecurity, in contrast with 8.7 percent of children living in nonsmoking households.

3.2 percent of children living in smoking households experienced severe food insecurity, whereas only 0.9 percent of those in households without smokers reported the same problem, according to the findings, which have been published in the November 2008 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

So, taken as a whole, children and adults inhabiting with other adult smokers are far less likely to have plenty of healthy food in their household, said researchers led by Dr. Cynthia Cutler-Triggs.