Objective: Refugees are vulnerable to food insecurity (FI). This is attributable to a combination of inequitable social determinants and cultural differences. In 2019, 92 % of refugee resettlement (host country provides residency/citizenship) occurred in high-income countries, but little is known about the factors impacting their food security status in this setting. The review’s objective was to therefore thematically identify factors affecting food security among refugees resettling in high-income countries.Design: This review was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Between May–July 2020 and February 2021, peer-reviewed studies focused on FI, and published in English from 2000–2020, were searched on Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Informit, PsychArticles, Proquest and EmBase.Setting: Only studies set in high-income countries were included.Participants: Fifty percent or more of study participants had to be refugees who had resettled within 5 years.Results: Twenty studies from six high-income countries were included. Culturally based food practices and priorities, confidence in navigating local foodways and transport, level of community connections and capabilities in local language and food preparation were key themes associated with food security.Conclusions: Utilising the four themes of culture, confidence, community and capabilities, there is an opportunity to improve the cultural sensitivity of measurement tools, develop understanding of how community-based resources (such as social capital) can be leveraged as food security buffers and modify existing food security initiatives to better serve refugee needs.

Objective: To investigate whether food literacy competencies and diet quality vary between 16-to-24-year-olds vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians, pescatarians, flexitarians and omnivores and to assess whether food literacy is associated with diet quality.Design: Cross-sectional study. Food literacy (general nutrition knowledge, critical nutrition literacy and food skills) and diet quality were measured using an electronic questionnaire.Setting: Southern Norway, September 2021 – March 2022.Participants: Healthy 16–24-year-olds (n165).Results: Overall, the mean general nutrition knowledge score was moderate (48·0 out of 67·0); the lowest mean score was found in omnivores and the highest in flexitarians (45·6v. 51·5) (P= 0·034). The mean score of critical nutrition literacy was also moderate (3·7 out of 5·0); vegans showed higher scores compared to other dietary practices (P= 0·018). No difference was observed in food skills between the different dietary practices. The overall median diet quality score was 46·0 out of 80·0, lowest in omnivores and highest in vegans (42·0v. 56·0) (P=< 0·001). In multivariate regression analyses, general nutrition knowledge, food skills and vegan dietary practice were significantly associated with higher diet quality.Conclusions: We found moderate levels of food literacy across all dietary practices. The food literacy competencies, general nutrition knowledge and food skills were associated with higher diet quality in our sample. Omnivores showed both the lowest general nutrition knowledge level and lowest diet quality scores. In contrast, both flexitarians and vegans scored highest on general nutrition knowledge and diet quality scores, despite being one of the less restrictive and one of the strictest plant-based dietary practices, respectively.

Background: Investigating effects of whole diets on blood pressure (BP) can contribute to development of diet-based recommendations for health. Our aim was to assess the relationship between dietary patterns and BP in a sample of free-living Australian adults. Methods: Usual dietary patterns of participants recruited to dietary intervention studies were assessed using factor analysis (two 24-h recalls). The mean of seven days of daily, seated BP measurements were used. Results: Complete data from 251 participants (112 males; mean age 55.1(9.1) (SD) years; body mass index (BMI) 29.5(3.9) kg/m²) was included. Three dietary patterns were identified. Only Dietary Pattern 2 was positively associated with home systolic BP (β = 1.88, 95% CI 0.16, 3.60) after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, anti-hypertensive medication, smoking, education, physical activity and energy intake. This dietary pattern was characterised by high consumption of low-fibre bread, pasta, noodles and rice, meat dishes, poultry dishes and egg dishes, mixed cereal dishes, salted nuts and low consumption of milk and yoghurt (low-fat), vegetable juice, vegetables and high-fibre bread. Dietary Pattern 2 was also positively associated with intakes of energy (P = 0.002) and sodium (P = 0.005) and inversely associated with potassium intake (P = 0.002). After adjustment for energy, only the inverse association with potassium remained (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In this sample of Australian adults, Dietary Pattern 2 was associated with higher BP and thus chronic disease risk, supporting the evidence that diets high in energy and sodium, and low in potassium from vegetables and dairy, are detrimental to cardiovascular health.