Food insecurity is becoming a global issue and its interplay with the obesity pandemic needs to be explored. Our study aimed to assess and quantify associations between household food insecurity and obesity. Data were obtained from seven consecutive cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS2005-2017/18). Obesity was defined as BMI≥30.00 kg/m2. Household food security status was determined based on 18 questions describing the situation in the previous 12 months, and the household was defined as food secure if there was none, or one, indication of difficulty with income-related food access. Gender differences will be discussed as well as it's implications for global health.

Dr. Ellina Lytvyak is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She completed her medical school in Ukraine and obtained her PhD Degree in Gastroenterology. She was awarded a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, by the United States Department of State, and completed it at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.

She completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta and currently serves as an Evidence-Based Medicine curriculum lead with the MD Program at the University of Alberta. 

She is certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine and is the founder of the Bariatric Medicine Clinic at the University of Alberta, where she provides care for the complex, multimorbid population of patients.

Dr. Ellina Lytvyak is an author and co-author of over 195 peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter, guidelines and position statements, with an h-index of 19 and i10-index of 32.  Her research focuses on obesity prevention and management at the individual and population levels, the link between obesity and food insecurity, cancer screening, quality of life, and chronic liver diseases.