Purpose

This paper aims to explore the effect of COVID-19 and the roles of COVID-19-induced economic and community factors on adolescent food insufficiency across five urban poor settings in Africa and Asia.

Methods

The analysis included respondents who completed a COVID-19 quantitative module as part of the longitudinal Global Early Adolescent Study. Data were divided into pre- and mid–COVID-19 periods to examine whether food insufficiency increased and modified by the pandemic and sociodemographical characteristics through longitudinal logistic regression. The roles of COVID-19-induced economic and community factors in food insufficiency were explored using multivariate logistic regression.

Results

During COVID-19, food insufficiency among adolescents increased by 6.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.4%–8.9%) in Shanghai, 26.6% (95% CI: 13.3%–40.0%) in Kinshasa, 20.3% (95% CI: 8.0%–32.7%) in Denpasar, 6.9% (95% CI: −4.7% to 17.9%) in Semarang, and 24.2% (95% CI: 21.5%–27.0%) in Blantyre. We detected the impact of COVID-19 on food insufficiency was modified by gender, family wealth, caregiver type, and neighborhood safety in Blantyre. Food insufficiency during the pandemic was consistently associated with affordability challenges and positively linked to perceptions of anger toward distancing rules in three Asian sites.

Discussion

This study reveals the increased trends of food insufficiency among adolescents living in urban poor settings following the onset of COVID-19. It expands our understanding of community factors associated with adolescent food insufficiency in Asia and Africa. Comprehensive strategies are needed to tackle economic and community disparities for adolescents at risk of food insufficiency.