Rachel Loopstra
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 316173 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Rachel Loopstra |
| PRENOMES | Rachel |
| SOBRENOME | Loopstra |
| ASSINATURA | LOOPSTRA R |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7541-6209 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 26 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 220 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 26 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2012 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Food insecurity and disability among working-age and older adults
Objective: To explore relationships between disability, food insecurity (FI) and age and examine how socio-economic factors impact risk of FI among disabled people in working and older age. Design: Logistic regression models used to analyse the contribution of socio-economic factors to gaps in risk of FI for disabled people. In models stratified into working and older age groups, differences in risk of FI for disabled and non-disabled people were…
How effective were government food box schemes for those who were shielding during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom? Local and national stakeholder perspectives
Objective: In spring 2020, governments across the UK put in place food box schemes to protect access to food for the population told to ‘shield’ from COVID-19 (i.e. not leave their house for any reason). This article explores the design, implementation and impact of food box schemes intended to regularly provide a week’s worth of food for individuals who were shielding. Design: Interviews and workshops with national and local stakeholders over su…
Wage-Setting Policies, Employment, and Food Insecurity
Objectives. To examine the association between wage-setting policy and food insecurity. Methods. We estimated multilevel regression models, using data from the Gallup World Poll (2014–2017) and UCLA’s World Policy Analysis Center, to examine the association between wage setting policy and food insecurity across 139 countries (n = 492 078). Results. Compared with countries with little or no minimum wage, the probability of being food insecure was …
The Continuing Effects of Welfare Reform on Food Bank use in the UK
In this paper we explore whether the recent rise in food bank usage in the UK has been induced by the roll-out of Universal Credit. We bring together official statistics on the introduction of Universal Credit with data on food bank usage from the UK's largest food bank network. We test the relationship between Universal Credit and food parcel distribution using a range of causal identification strategies (such as fixed-effects model, Granger cau…
Working‐age adults using food banks in England have significantly poorer health and higher rates of mental health conditions than adults in the general population
Food bank use has risen rapidly in the UK since 2010. The negative health impacts of food insecurity are well-documented, but there is a lack of quantitative research exploring the health of people using food banks, who are most often severely food insecure. To address this gap, this study compares health outcomes between working-age adults using food banks and those in the general population in England, investigating whether adults using food ba…
Food bank operational characteristics and rates of food bank use across Britain
These findings suggest operational characteristics are an important part of access to food banks and raise questions about the ability of food banks to meet the needs of people at risk of food insecurity in Britain
The Housing Situations of Food Bank Users in Great Britain
Food bank use in Great Britain has risen substantially over the last decade. The considerable socioeconomic disadvantage of the food bank user population has been documented, but little research has examined whether housing problems intersect with insecure food access. Using data from 598 households accessing assistance from twenty-four food banks operating in Great Britain in 2016–2017, we found that nearly 18 per cent of households were homeles…
The Relationship Between Food Banks and Food Insecurity
Food banks have become the first line of response to problems of hunger and food insecurity in affluent nations. Although originating in the USA, food banks are now well established in Canada, Australia, and some Nordic countries, and they have rapidly expanded in the UK and other parts of Europe in the past two decades. Defined by the mobilization of food donations and volunteer labor within communities to provide food to those in need, food ban…
The rise of hunger among low-income households
BACKGROUND: Rising food bank use in the past decade in the UK raises questions about whether food insecurity has increased. Using the 2016 Food and You survey, we describe the magnitude and severity of the problem, examine characteristics associated with severity of food insecurity, and examine how vulnerability has changed among low-income households by comparing 2016 data to the 2004 Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey. METHODS: The Food and Y…
Interventions to address household food insecurity in high-income countries
Household food insecurity is a serious public health concern in high-income countries. Canada and the USA regularly monitor household food insecurity, while in other countries, such as the UK, it has been the rapid rise of food bank usage that has drawn increased attention to this longstanding, but largely overlooked, problem. This review evaluates evidence on interventions intended to reduce household food insecurity in high-income countries. Re…
Impact of Welfare Benefit Sanctioning on Food Insecurity
Since 2009, the UK has witnessed marked increases in the rate of sanctions applied to unemployment insurance claimants, as part of a wider agenda of austerity and welfare reform. In 2013, over one million sanctions were applied, stopping benefit payments for a minimum of four weeks and potentially leaving people facing economic hardship and driving them to use food banks. Here we explore whether sanctioning is associated with food bank use by lin…
Austerity and health
Austerity measures-reducing social spending and increasing taxation-hurts deprived groups the most. Less is known about the impact on health. In this short review, we evaluate the evidence of austerity's impact on health, through two main mechanisms: a 'social risk effect' of increasing unemployment, poverty, homelessness and other socio-economic risk factors (indirect), and a 'healthcare effect' through cuts to healthcare services, as well as re…
The growing disconnect between food prices and wages in Europe
Objective Food insecurity has been rising across Europe following the Great Recession, but to varying degrees across countries and over time. The reasons for this increase are not well understood, nor are what factors might protect people’s access to food. Here we test the hypothesis that an emerging gap between food prices and wages can explain increases in reported inability to afford protein-rich foods and whether welfare regimes can mitigate …
Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups
Underpinned by the assumption that unemployed persons are passive recipients of social security, recent welfare reforms have increased benefit conditionality in the UK and introduced harsher penalties for failure to meet these conditions. Yet, conditionality may result in vulnerable groups disproportionately experiencing disentitlement from benefits, one of the rights of social citizenship, because they are, in some cases, less able to meet these…
Is trade liberalisation a vector for the spread of sugar-sweetened beverages? A cross-national longitudinal analysis of 44 low- and middle-income countries
The impact of housing payment problems on health status during economic recession
Although the recent Great Recession had its origins in the housing sector, the short-term health impact of the housing crisis is not well understood. We used longitudinal data to evaluate the impact of housing payment problems on health status among home-owners and renters in 27 European states. Multi-level and fixed-effects models were applied to a retrospective cohort drawn from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey of employ…
Fit-for-work or fit-for-unemployment? Does the reassessment of disability benefit claimants using a tougher work capability assessment help people into work
BACKGROUND: Many governments have introduced tougher eligibility assessments for out-of-work disability benefits, to reduce rising benefit caseloads. The UK government initiated a programme in 2010 to reassess all existing disability benefit claimants using a new functional checklist. We investigated whether this policy led to more people out-of-work with long-standing health problems entering employment. METHOD: We use longitudinal data from the…
First, do no harm’
BACKGROUND: In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist-the Work Capability Assessment. Doctors and disability rights organisations have raised concerns that this has had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants, but there are no population level studies exploring the health effects of this or similar poli…
Austerity, sanctions, and the rise of food banks in the UK
Doctors are witnessing increasing numbers of patients seeking referrals to food banks in the United Kingdom. Rachel Loopstra and colleagues ask, is this due to supply or demand?
Cross-national comparison of socioeconomic inequalities in obesity in the United States and Canada
Our results suggest there is variation between U.S. and Canada in different dimensions of socioeconomic inequalities in obesity. Future research should examine a broader set of nations and test whether specific policies or environmental exposures can explain these differences
Food Bank Usage Is a Poor Indicator of Food Insecurity
This article reflects on the insights afforded by the regular measurement and monitoring of household food insecurity in Canada juxtaposed against information on food bank usage in the population. We show that the number and characteristics of people using food banks suggest that this population is a non-representative subset of the food insecure population. We also highlight how the number of people using food banks is insensitive to the level o…
An Exploration of the Unprecedented Decline in the Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2007–2012
From 2007 to 2011, the prevalence of household food insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador fell from 15.7 to 10.6 percent. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, we undertook exploratory analyses to identify potential drivers of this unprecedented decline. We found that the decrease could in part be attributed to shifts in household income, but it also reflected a dramatic decline in food insecurity among social assistance recipie…
Food banks, welfare, and food insecurity in Canada
Purpose – Similar to the recent emergence of food banks in other affluent nations, the genesis and ultimate entrenchment of food banks in Canada has been tightly intertwined with the dismantling of the welfare state. Through an examination of Canadian data, the authors elucidate the implications of entrenching voluntary, extra-governmental, charitable food assistance programs as an adjunct to publicly funded social assistance programs. The paper …
Severity of Household Food Insecurity Is Sensitive to Change in Household Income and Employment Status among Low-Income Families1–3
Perspectives on Community Gardens, Community Kitchens and the Good Food Box Program in a Community-based Sample of Low-income Families
The Relationship between Food Banks and Household Food Insecurity among Low-Income Toronto Families
Étant donné l’absence de politiques publiques précises face au problème de l’insécurité alimentaire des ménages au Canada, les banques alimentaires restent la solution la plus courante, malgré les questions qui se posent au sujet de leur efficacité. En effet, parmi 371 familles à faible revenu de Toronto que nous avons interviewées dans le cadre de cette étude, 75 % avaient vécu de l’insécurité alimentaire, mais seulement 23 % avaient eu recours …
Impact of Welfare Benefit Sanctioning on Food Insecurity
Since 2009, the UK has witnessed marked increases in the rate of sanctions applied to unemployment insurance claimants, as part of a wider agenda of austerity and welfare reform. In 2013, over one million sanctions were applied, stopping benefit payments for a minimum of four weeks and potentially leaving people facing economic hardship and driving them to use food banks. Here we explore whether sanctioning is associated with food bank use by lin…
Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups
Underpinned by the assumption that unemployed persons are passive recipients of social security, recent welfare reforms have increased benefit conditionality in the UK and introduced harsher penalties for failure to meet these conditions. Yet, conditionality may result in vulnerable groups disproportionately experiencing disentitlement from benefits, one of the rights of social citizenship, because they are, in some cases, less able to meet these…
First, do no harm’
BACKGROUND: In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist-the Work Capability Assessment. Doctors and disability rights organisations have raised concerns that this has had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants, but there are no population level studies exploring the health effects of this or similar poli…
Food Bank Usage Is a Poor Indicator of Food Insecurity
This article reflects on the insights afforded by the regular measurement and monitoring of household food insecurity in Canada juxtaposed against information on food bank usage in the population. We show that the number and characteristics of people using food banks suggest that this population is a non-representative subset of the food insecure population. We also highlight how the number of people using food banks is insensitive to the level o…
An Exploration of the Unprecedented Decline in the Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2007–2012
From 2007 to 2011, the prevalence of household food insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador fell from 15.7 to 10.6 percent. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, we undertook exploratory analyses to identify potential drivers of this unprecedented decline. We found that the decrease could in part be attributed to shifts in household income, but it also reflected a dramatic decline in food insecurity among social assistance recipie…
The rise of hunger among low-income households
BACKGROUND: Rising food bank use in the past decade in the UK raises questions about whether food insecurity has increased. Using the 2016 Food and You survey, we describe the magnitude and severity of the problem, examine characteristics associated with severity of food insecurity, and examine how vulnerability has changed among low-income households by comparing 2016 data to the 2004 Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey. METHODS: The Food and Y…
The Continuing Effects of Welfare Reform on Food Bank use in the UK
In this paper we explore whether the recent rise in food bank usage in the UK has been induced by the roll-out of Universal Credit. We bring together official statistics on the introduction of Universal Credit with data on food bank usage from the UK's largest food bank network. We test the relationship between Universal Credit and food parcel distribution using a range of causal identification strategies (such as fixed-effects model, Granger cau…
The Relationship Between Food Banks and Food Insecurity
Food banks have become the first line of response to problems of hunger and food insecurity in affluent nations. Although originating in the USA, food banks are now well established in Canada, Australia, and some Nordic countries, and they have rapidly expanded in the UK and other parts of Europe in the past two decades. Defined by the mobilization of food donations and volunteer labor within communities to provide food to those in need, food ban…
Perspectives on Community Gardens, Community Kitchens and the Good Food Box Program in a Community-based Sample of Low-income Families
Is trade liberalisation a vector for the spread of sugar-sweetened beverages? A cross-national longitudinal analysis of 44 low- and middle-income countries
Fit-for-work or fit-for-unemployment? Does the reassessment of disability benefit claimants using a tougher work capability assessment help people into work
BACKGROUND: Many governments have introduced tougher eligibility assessments for out-of-work disability benefits, to reduce rising benefit caseloads. The UK government initiated a programme in 2010 to reassess all existing disability benefit claimants using a new functional checklist. We investigated whether this policy led to more people out-of-work with long-standing health problems entering employment. METHOD: We use longitudinal data from the…
Wage-Setting Policies, Employment, and Food Insecurity
Objectives. To examine the association between wage-setting policy and food insecurity. Methods. We estimated multilevel regression models, using data from the Gallup World Poll (2014–2017) and UCLA’s World Policy Analysis Center, to examine the association between wage setting policy and food insecurity across 139 countries (n = 492 078). Results. Compared with countries with little or no minimum wage, the probability of being food insecure was …
The Housing Situations of Food Bank Users in Great Britain
Food bank use in Great Britain has risen substantially over the last decade. The considerable socioeconomic disadvantage of the food bank user population has been documented, but little research has examined whether housing problems intersect with insecure food access. Using data from 598 households accessing assistance from twenty-four food banks operating in Great Britain in 2016–2017, we found that nearly 18 per cent of households were homeles…
The Relationship between Food Banks and Household Food Insecurity among Low-Income Toronto Families
Étant donné l’absence de politiques publiques précises face au problème de l’insécurité alimentaire des ménages au Canada, les banques alimentaires restent la solution la plus courante, malgré les questions qui se posent au sujet de leur efficacité. En effet, parmi 371 familles à faible revenu de Toronto que nous avons interviewées dans le cadre de cette étude, 75 % avaient vécu de l’insécurité alimentaire, mais seulement 23 % avaient eu recours …
Severity of Household Food Insecurity Is Sensitive to Change in Household Income and Employment Status among Low-Income Families1–3
Perspectives on Community Gardens, Community Kitchens and the Good Food Box Program in a Community-based Sample of Low-income Families
Food banks, welfare, and food insecurity in Canada
Purpose – Similar to the recent emergence of food banks in other affluent nations, the genesis and ultimate entrenchment of food banks in Canada has been tightly intertwined with the dismantling of the welfare state. Through an examination of Canadian data, the authors elucidate the implications of entrenching voluntary, extra-governmental, charitable food assistance programs as an adjunct to publicly funded social assistance programs. The paper …
Austerity, sanctions, and the rise of food banks in the UK
Doctors are witnessing increasing numbers of patients seeking referrals to food banks in the United Kingdom. Rachel Loopstra and colleagues ask, is this due to supply or demand?
Cross-national comparison of socioeconomic inequalities in obesity in the United States and Canada
Our results suggest there is variation between U.S. and Canada in different dimensions of socioeconomic inequalities in obesity. Future research should examine a broader set of nations and test whether specific policies or environmental exposures can explain these differences
Food Bank Usage Is a Poor Indicator of Food Insecurity
This article reflects on the insights afforded by the regular measurement and monitoring of household food insecurity in Canada juxtaposed against information on food bank usage in the population. We show that the number and characteristics of people using food banks suggest that this population is a non-representative subset of the food insecure population. We also highlight how the number of people using food banks is insensitive to the level o…
An Exploration of the Unprecedented Decline in the Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2007–2012
From 2007 to 2011, the prevalence of household food insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador fell from 15.7 to 10.6 percent. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, we undertook exploratory analyses to identify potential drivers of this unprecedented decline. We found that the decrease could in part be attributed to shifts in household income, but it also reflected a dramatic decline in food insecurity among social assistance recipie…
The impact of housing payment problems on health status during economic recession
Although the recent Great Recession had its origins in the housing sector, the short-term health impact of the housing crisis is not well understood. We used longitudinal data to evaluate the impact of housing payment problems on health status among home-owners and renters in 27 European states. Multi-level and fixed-effects models were applied to a retrospective cohort drawn from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey of employ…
Fit-for-work or fit-for-unemployment? Does the reassessment of disability benefit claimants using a tougher work capability assessment help people into work
BACKGROUND: Many governments have introduced tougher eligibility assessments for out-of-work disability benefits, to reduce rising benefit caseloads. The UK government initiated a programme in 2010 to reassess all existing disability benefit claimants using a new functional checklist. We investigated whether this policy led to more people out-of-work with long-standing health problems entering employment. METHOD: We use longitudinal data from the…
First, do no harm’
BACKGROUND: In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist-the Work Capability Assessment. Doctors and disability rights organisations have raised concerns that this has had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants, but there are no population level studies exploring the health effects of this or similar poli…
Austerity and health
Austerity measures-reducing social spending and increasing taxation-hurts deprived groups the most. Less is known about the impact on health. In this short review, we evaluate the evidence of austerity's impact on health, through two main mechanisms: a 'social risk effect' of increasing unemployment, poverty, homelessness and other socio-economic risk factors (indirect), and a 'healthcare effect' through cuts to healthcare services, as well as re…
The growing disconnect between food prices and wages in Europe
Objective Food insecurity has been rising across Europe following the Great Recession, but to varying degrees across countries and over time. The reasons for this increase are not well understood, nor are what factors might protect people’s access to food. Here we test the hypothesis that an emerging gap between food prices and wages can explain increases in reported inability to afford protein-rich foods and whether welfare regimes can mitigate …
Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups
Underpinned by the assumption that unemployed persons are passive recipients of social security, recent welfare reforms have increased benefit conditionality in the UK and introduced harsher penalties for failure to meet these conditions. Yet, conditionality may result in vulnerable groups disproportionately experiencing disentitlement from benefits, one of the rights of social citizenship, because they are, in some cases, less able to meet these…
Is trade liberalisation a vector for the spread of sugar-sweetened beverages? A cross-national longitudinal analysis of 44 low- and middle-income countries
Interventions to address household food insecurity in high-income countries
Household food insecurity is a serious public health concern in high-income countries. Canada and the USA regularly monitor household food insecurity, while in other countries, such as the UK, it has been the rapid rise of food bank usage that has drawn increased attention to this longstanding, but largely overlooked, problem. This review evaluates evidence on interventions intended to reduce household food insecurity in high-income countries. Re…
Impact of Welfare Benefit Sanctioning on Food Insecurity
Since 2009, the UK has witnessed marked increases in the rate of sanctions applied to unemployment insurance claimants, as part of a wider agenda of austerity and welfare reform. In 2013, over one million sanctions were applied, stopping benefit payments for a minimum of four weeks and potentially leaving people facing economic hardship and driving them to use food banks. Here we explore whether sanctioning is associated with food bank use by lin…
Food bank operational characteristics and rates of food bank use across Britain
These findings suggest operational characteristics are an important part of access to food banks and raise questions about the ability of food banks to meet the needs of people at risk of food insecurity in Britain
The Housing Situations of Food Bank Users in Great Britain
Food bank use in Great Britain has risen substantially over the last decade. The considerable socioeconomic disadvantage of the food bank user population has been documented, but little research has examined whether housing problems intersect with insecure food access. Using data from 598 households accessing assistance from twenty-four food banks operating in Great Britain in 2016–2017, we found that nearly 18 per cent of households were homeles…
The Relationship Between Food Banks and Food Insecurity
Food banks have become the first line of response to problems of hunger and food insecurity in affluent nations. Although originating in the USA, food banks are now well established in Canada, Australia, and some Nordic countries, and they have rapidly expanded in the UK and other parts of Europe in the past two decades. Defined by the mobilization of food donations and volunteer labor within communities to provide food to those in need, food ban…
The rise of hunger among low-income households
BACKGROUND: Rising food bank use in the past decade in the UK raises questions about whether food insecurity has increased. Using the 2016 Food and You survey, we describe the magnitude and severity of the problem, examine characteristics associated with severity of food insecurity, and examine how vulnerability has changed among low-income households by comparing 2016 data to the 2004 Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey. METHODS: The Food and Y…
Working‐age adults using food banks in England have significantly poorer health and higher rates of mental health conditions than adults in the general population
Food bank use has risen rapidly in the UK since 2010. The negative health impacts of food insecurity are well-documented, but there is a lack of quantitative research exploring the health of people using food banks, who are most often severely food insecure. To address this gap, this study compares health outcomes between working-age adults using food banks and those in the general population in England, investigating whether adults using food ba…
Wage-Setting Policies, Employment, and Food Insecurity
Objectives. To examine the association between wage-setting policy and food insecurity. Methods. We estimated multilevel regression models, using data from the Gallup World Poll (2014–2017) and UCLA’s World Policy Analysis Center, to examine the association between wage setting policy and food insecurity across 139 countries (n = 492 078). Results. Compared with countries with little or no minimum wage, the probability of being food insecure was …
The Continuing Effects of Welfare Reform on Food Bank use in the UK
In this paper we explore whether the recent rise in food bank usage in the UK has been induced by the roll-out of Universal Credit. We bring together official statistics on the introduction of Universal Credit with data on food bank usage from the UK's largest food bank network. We test the relationship between Universal Credit and food parcel distribution using a range of causal identification strategies (such as fixed-effects model, Granger cau…
How effective were government food box schemes for those who were shielding during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom? Local and national stakeholder perspectives
Objective: In spring 2020, governments across the UK put in place food box schemes to protect access to food for the population told to ‘shield’ from COVID-19 (i.e. not leave their house for any reason). This article explores the design, implementation and impact of food box schemes intended to regularly provide a week’s worth of food for individuals who were shielding. Design: Interviews and workshops with national and local stakeholders over su…
Economics (20 obras) · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations (19 obras) · Medicine (18 obras) · Geography (17 obras) · Environmental health (15 obras) · Food insecurity (15 obras) · Food security (15 obras) · Agriculture (12 obras) · Economic growth (12 obras) · Business (11 obras)