article · Discover Public Health
Older individuals in Morogoro, Tanzania, face notable challenges with food insecurity, characterised by eating fewer meals and consuming inadequate quantities of food. Qualitative research involving fifty elderly participants and three district officials examined the day-to-day realities and causes of this vulnerability. The findings show that diminishing physical strength restricts older adults from farming, preparing their own meals, or performing casual labour to generate income for purchasing sustenance. In addition, the responsibility of caring for grandchildren compounds this strain, while financial and food support from their adult children remains insufficient. Consequently, the elderly experience deficits in both the quality and quantity of their diets, highlighting an urgent need for national social protection strategies to secure reliable nourishment for this demographic.
Food insecurity severely threatens the health and well-being of ageing populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Documenting the specific drivers of hunger among older people enables policymakers, public health organisations, and welfare programmes to design targeted interventions that address declining physical capacity and the demands of intergenerational caregiving.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway for commercialisation, as the research is an early-stage qualitative policy study focused on informing governmental food security strategies.
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A significant proportion of the elderly population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is food insecure. Insufficient daily meal intake, quantity of food, and dietary monotony are among the defining characteristics of the elderly population in the region. However, there is limited documentation on elderly voices regarding their experience of the phenomenon in Tanzania. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the experience of food insecurity among elderly people (identified as poor elderly) aged 60 years in Morogoro. We adopted an exploratory case study design employing in-depth interviews (IDI) guide and a Focused Group Discussions (FGD) guide to explore the experience of food insecurity among the elderly population and identify the underlying circumstances. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select study participants for in-depth interviews and focused group discussion (FGD). A total of 25 elderly and 3 district officials were involved in in-depth interviews, and another 25 elderly people were involved in focused group discussions. A thematic analysis adopting both inductive and deductive approaches was used to analyse the collected data and findings are presented in forms of themes and subthemes. The study found that the elderly had experience of having limited access to food and ate a smaller number of meals as well as insufficient amounts. The circumstances underlying food insecurity among the elderly population were found to be limited strength to engage themselves in farm activities or work as casual labour to earn some money to buy food, limited strength to prepare food, the burden of taking care of grandchildren, and inadequate food support from children. This study has demonstrated that elderly people experience food insecurity with respect to both quantity and quality. Therefore, it is high time that the government develops a strategy to ensure that all elderly have assurance of food all over the country.
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DOI: 10.1186/s12982-025-00699-z
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