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Mental health and food insecurity are major public health issues among adolescents in Ecuador. Our objective was to determine the relationship between hunger, symptoms of depression, and suicidal ideation among school-going Ecuadorian adolescents.

We conducted crude and multivariable logistic regression models using data from the 2007 Global School-based Student Health Survey from Quito, Guayaquil, and Zamora, Ecuador (N = 5524). Hunger was defined as having gone hungry in the past 30 days due to lack of food in the home. Outcomes of interest were symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation with or without planning in the past year.

Overall, 41.2 % (2200/5467) of students reported experiencing hunger. In multivariable logistic regression models, hunger had an increasing …