Assessment of Food Insecurity, Diet Quality, and Mental Health Status Among Syrian Refugee Mothers

Background : Despite Türkiye hosting the largest population of Syrian refugees in the world, research on the vulnerability factors contributing to food insecurity among Syrian refugee mothers remains scarce. This study investigated the relationships between maternal food insecurity, diet quality, and mental health outcomes among Syrian refugee mothers residing in Türkiye. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 285 Syrian mothers with children under five years of age in Türkiye. Maternal food insecurity was assessed via the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), diet quality was evaluated via the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to measure mental health conditions. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys conducted by two native Arabic translators, and the analyses included sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, diet quality, food insecurity status, and mental health status. Results: The prevalence of food insecurity among refugee mothers was 45.3%. Mothers experiencing food insecurity presented significantly lower levels of mental health and diet quality (p < 0.05). An increase of one unit in the food insecurity score was associated with an increase of 1.031 units in the total Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score. The model demonstrated that food insecurity accounted for 30.2% of the variance in PHQ scores (R² = 0.302). Low income, lack of institutional aid, short length of stay, and number of children significantly increase the likelihood of poor dietary quality among refugee mothers. Conclusion: Food insecurity was found to be a widespread problem for mothers who are refugees from Syria. Food insecurity was significantly associated with poorer nutritional quality and with mental health issues in mothers. These findings suggest the need for expanding social support programs, implementing effective public health interventions for food security, and overall enhancement of maternal health status.