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Table 2 Summary characteristics of key indicators: drought exposure, food insecurity, and psychological distress, stratified by rural and urban location

From: The impact of drought on the association between food security and mental health in a nationally representative Australian sample

 

Rural

Urban

All

Mean difference between rural and urban

(N =919)

(N =4093)

(N =5012)

 

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

SE

P-value

Drought exposure

  Zero and moderate

65.0

597

44.3

1814

47.3

2369

20.6

6.9

0.003

  Very dry

5.5

50

13.4

550

12.3

616

-8.0

3.4

0.019

  Long dry

18.1

166

32.1

1314

30.1

1509

-14.0

6.0

0.019

  Constant dry

5.8

54

3.0

123

3.4

171

2.8

2.5

0.259

  Constant and long dry

5.6

52

7.2

293

6.9

348

1.5

3.7

0.681

Food insecurity

Missing meals

  Yes

1.8

16

1.6

63

1.6

79

0.2

0.6

0.707

  No

98.2

903

98.4

4030

98.4

4933

   

Core food consumption

  Below-average

32.8

301

31.6

1293

31.8

1592

1.2

2.4

0.635

  Above-average

67.2

618

68.4

2800

68.2

3420

   

Discretionary food consumption

  Above average

60.2

554

62.2

2545

61.9

3103

-2.0

2.7

0.466

  Below average

39.8

365

37.8

1548

38.1

1909

   

Psychological distress, Mean (SE)

 

15.1

0.3

15.6

0.1

15.5

0.1

-0.5

0.3

0.104