Objective: Given the competing needs for food and housing under the limited household income among poor families, there is lack of research on the associations between housing affordability and food insecurity. The current study examines how housing cost burden affects food insecurity of low-income families and whether decreased housing cost enhances food security.Design: Longitudinal data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study, of which the final sample for the analysis consisted of 31 304 household-level observations from 5466 households based on twelve waves (2007–2018).Setting: South Korea.Participants: Low-income households in the lowest 40 % of household income distribution.Results: 19·3 % had food insecurity, and housing cost burden was associated with food insecurity. While in-kind housing assistance and in-cash assistance from all sources were likely to reduce food insecurity partially through influencing housing cost burden, in-cash housing assistance was associated with higher likelihood of food insecurity.Conclusions: Housing cost burden potentially limits food access among poor families, and housing assistance, particularly public housing and sufficient in-cash assistance, is conducive to alleviating food insecurity.

Objectives: This study examined whether exposure to chronic loneliness is associated with a persistent decline in hand grip strength among community-dwelling older adults in Korea, and this association varies by gender.Methods: This study analyzed data from 2,570 adults aged 65 or older collected over the course of 7 waves (12 years) of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing from 2006 to 2018 (1,403 women and 1,167 men). Exposure to chronic loneliness was assessed by the experience of loneliness over a period of years, and hand grip strength was measured by an objective diagnostic tool. Gender-stratified fixed effects models were estimated to determine whether the association between chronic loneliness and hand grip strength differs by gender while accounting for time-invariant individual heterogeneity.Results: Chronic loneliness was associated with a persistent decline in hand grip strength in older adults over an extended period of time. Gender-specific analyses revealed that only men continued to experience a decline in hand grip strength up to the fifth and subsequent waves of exposure (b = −1.889). By contrast, for older women, a significant decrease in hand grip strength was observed only in the second wave of exposure (b = −0.690). These gendered trajectories were statistically significant.Discussion: Chronic loneliness impairs the physical health of older adults in the long run. These physical health consequences of chronic loneliness were more pronounced among older men than older women. The study’s findings inform the development of interventions that mitigate the adverse health consequences of chronic loneliness.