*2.2. Food Insecurity*

Food insecurity was defined with the use of the two following questions: "In the last 12 months, how often did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn't enough food?" and "In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn't eat because you couldn't afford enough food?" Both of these questions had as response options: every month (coded = 1); almost every month (coded = 2); some months, but not every month (coded = 3); only in 1 or 2 months (coded = 4); never (coded = 5). These items were based on similar items found in food security questionnaires such as the US Household Food Security Survey Module and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Food Security module. As in a previous SAGE study, those who answered 1 through 3 to both questions or answered 1 to either item were categorized as severely food insecure. Those who

did not fulfill the criteria for severe food insecurity but answered 2 through 4 for either question were coded as moderately food insecure. Those who answered 5 to both items were categorized as food secure [22].

## *2.3. Control Variables*

Past literature was used as a guide to select the control variables [7]. Specifically, these included sex, age (years), years of education, wealth quintiles based on income, race (Black, White, other), low physical activity, smoking (never, past, current), alcohol use in the past 30 days, past 12 month DSM-IV depression, body mass index (BMI) based on measured weight and height [<18.5 (underweight), 18.5–24.9 (normal), 25.0–29.9 (overweight), ≥30 kg/m<sup>2</sup> (obese)], and chronic physical conditions (diabetes, hypertension, stroke). Stroke and diabetes were based only on lifetime self-reported diagnosis. Hypertension referred to having self-reported diagnosis, systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg, or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to assess the level of physical activity [23]. Low physical activity was defined as <150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in a typical week [24]. The endorsement of DSM-IV depression was based on the World Mental Health Survey version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview [25].
