Impacto da transfobia na (in)segurança alimentar de pessoas transgênero e travestis no Brasil

Abstract

Food insecurity, characterized by the lack of regular access to healthy, nutritious food in sufficient quantity, is a social problem of high global prevalence, which disproportionately affects groups in vulnerable situations. In this context, transgender and travesti people are at even greater risk, since they live at extreme risk of food insecurity due to transphobia and its marginalization processes. Given this, relating epidemiology with food insecurity and gastronomy to understand the roots of hunger, its distribution in society, and the specific impacts on transgender people, this research aims to: evaluate food insecurity in Brazil among transgender and travesti people, as well as its association with sociodemographic characteristics and internalized transphobia. This is an epidemiological, analytical, cross-sectional study, conducted in Brazil, including the 26 States of the Federation and the Federal District. The sample was composed of 551 Brazilian people, residing in Brazil, self-declared as transgender man or woman, travesti, or non-binary person; and aged 18 years or older, with a nonprobabilistic sampling plan with weighting to correct for the disproportion of inhabitants per macro-region. Data were collected using a digital questionnaire via Google Forms®, disseminated via Instagram® and Facebook®, containing the Informed Consent Form, a sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, the Self-Reported Prejudice against Transsexuality Scale, and the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. The analysis was performed using descriptive and complex, weighted analytical statistics, using the Wald F association test and Simple Linear Regressions with Standard Error correction and Generalized Poisson and Negative Binomial Regressions with log-exponentiated coefficients, adopting a 95% confidence interval, a 5% margin of error (α), and a power of 0.95. The results describe that the trans and travesti population comprising the sample is mostly composed of white people (56.7%), trans men (34.3%), aged between 18 and 25 years (67.5%), with completed high school education (73.6%) and family income <1 minimum wage. Regarding Food and Nutritional Security levels, 23.6% are in Food Security, 28.1% in mild FI, 16.4% in moderate FI, and 31.8% in severe FI. The general prevalence of food insecurity is 76.4%, and it has a statistically significant association (p<0.05) with skin color, education level, income, and internalized transphobia. The analytical associations showed that food insecurity is influenced by internalized transphobia in a positive and moderate manner (r 0.37; p<0.001), configuring it as a serious public health problem. The high prevalence of food insecurity in transgender people demands strategies and public policies to combat hunger and provide social protection, such as the creation of trans-inclusive solidarity kitchens and the promotion of professional training courses in gastronomy in order to generate jobs and income, structurally reducing food insecurity and integrating preventive nutritional health policies associated with gastronomy. In addition to contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to objective 2, Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture.