Homeownership status and risk of food insecurity: examining the role of housing debt, housing expenditure and housing asset using a cross-sectional population-based survey of Canadian households

Fafard St-Germain, Andrée-Anne; Tarasuk, Valerie

doi:10.1186/s12939-019-1114-z

International Journal for Equity in Health

Table 1 Descriptive statistics by household food insecurity status

From: Homeownership status and risk of food insecurity: examining the role of housing debt, housing expenditure and housing asset using a cross-sectional population-based survey of Canadian households

Characteristics	All	Food secure	Food insecure	P value*
Characteristics	n = 10,815	n = 9451	n = 1364
Homeownership status, %				< 0.0001
Renters	26.8	22.1	56.4
Owners with mortgage
Low housing asset (≤$120,000)	3.4	2.9	6.2^§
Higher housing asset (>$120,000)	34.3	35.6	26.0
Mortgage-free owners
Low housing asset (≤$120,000)	4.7	4.7	4.7^§
Higher housing asset (>$120,000)	30.9	34.7	6.6
After-tax income†, mean (SD)	$43,506 (33136)	$46,143 (34453)	$26,606 (16036)	< 0.0001
Housing expenditure†, mean (SD)	$8584 (5498)	$8658 (5699)	$8108 (4063)	0.014
After-housing income†, mean (SD)	$34,922 (32256)	$37,485 (33595)	$18,498 (14879)	< 0.0001
Housing-to-income ratio, mean (SD)	25.0% (17.2)	23.2% (16.0)	36.8% (19.5)	< 0.0001
Age of head of household, %				< 0.0001
< 30	8.6	7.6	14.9
30 to < 40	17.3	16.4	23.0
40 to < 50	21.8	20.7	28.8
50 to < 60	21.1	21.6	17.9
60 to < 70	15.9	17.1	8.7
≥ 70	15.3	16.6	6.8
Household structure, %				< 0.0001
Unattached, living alone	28.1	26.7	37.3
Couple, living alone	32.2	34.9	14.8
Couple with children‡	33.0	32.9	33.3
Lone parent‡	6.8	5.5	14.6
Number of children < 18, %				< 0.0001
0	72.1	73.6	62.6
1	11.4	10.8	14.9
2 or more	16.5	15.6	22.5
Household member with disability¶, %				< 0.0001
Yes	21.2	19.5	32.3
No	78.8	80.5	67.7
Household education (highest level), %				< 0.0001
High school diploma or less	29.6	27.2	45.3
Post-secondary	40.1	39.7	42.5
University degree	30.3	33.1	12.2
Main source of income, %				< 0.0001
Wages/salaries or self-employment	67.1	68.2	60.0
EI or workers’ compensation	2.4	1.5	8.5^§
Seniors’ benefits or pension	23.4	25.1	12.3
Social assistance	2.3	0.9^§	11.1
Other sources	4.9	4.3	8.1
Region of residence, %				0.003
Atlantic	7.5	7.3	9.0
Quebec	26.1	26.4	24.4
Ontario	36.4	35.6	41.7
Prairies	17.4	17.8	14.7
British Columbia	12.6	12.9	10.4
Population centre size, %				0.031
Rural (< 1000)	11.9	12.2	9.7
Small (1000 to < 100,000)	20.9	20.2	25.5
Medium (100,000 to < 500,000)	17.4	17.3	18.0
Large (≥500,000)	49.9	50.3	46.8

EI, Employment insurance
Column percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
* p values based on the Rao-Scott F adjusted chi-square statistic for categorical variables and the adjusted Wald test for differences in the means of continuous variables
† Adjusted for household size by dividing by the square root of household size
‡The presence children in these households reflects the familial relationship between the members of the household, and the children may be of all ages
¶ Presence of household member with disability based on households reporting that one member’s amount or kind of activity at home, at work, at school or in other activities was sometimes or often reduced by a physical/mental condition or health problem [38]
§ Coefficient of variation greater than 16.6%, indicating that the estimate is associated with high sampling variability

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ISSN: 1475-9276

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