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Objective: The present paper aimed to demonstrate how 24 h dietary recall data can be used to generate a nutrition-relevant food list for household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES) using contribution analysis and stepwise regression.Design: The analysis used data from the 2011/12 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS), which is nationally representative of rural Bangladesh. A total of 325 primary sampling units (PSU=village) were surveyed through a two-stage stratified sampling approach. The household food consumption module used for the analysis consisted of a 24 h open dietary recall in which the female member in charge of preparing and serving food was asked about foods and quantities consumed by the whole household.Setting: Rural Bangladesh.ParticipantsA total of 6500 households.Results: The original 24 h open dietary recall data in the BIHS were comprised of 288 individual foods that were grouped into ninety-four similar food groups. Contribution analysis and stepwise regression were based on nutrients of public health interest in Bangladesh (energy, protein, fat, Fe, Zn, vitamin A). These steps revealed that a list of fifty-nine food items captures approximately 90 % of the total intake and up to 90 % of the between-person variation for the key nutrients based on the diets of the population.Conclusions: The study illustrates how 24 h open dietary recall data can be used to generate a country-specific nutrition-relevant food list that could be integrated into an HCES consumption module to enable more accurate and comprehensive household-level food and nutrient analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of Food Stamp Program (FSP) effects has been complicated by self-selection and by a contradiction between observed spending patterns and the economic theory of consumer choice. We developed a modified version of the traditional theory, in which participant households may be partly extramarginal even if they have some cash spending on at-home food. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data for 2001–2005, we estimated Engel functions for at-home and away-from-home food spending for FSP participants and nonparticipants. Compared to nonparticipants with the same level of total income, participants had higher at-home food spending and lower away-from-home food spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper hypothesizes that there is a common "core" to the household food insecurity experience that goes beyond insufficient food quantity and that transcends culture. The paper for the first time employs an exploratory approach to identify cross-cultural commonalities of the food insecurity experience as captured in 22 scales and related ethnographies derived from 15 different countries. The constant comparative method was used to code elements of the food insecurity experience expressed in the ethnographies and to regroup them into domains and subdomains. This typology was then applied to ascertain which experiential domains and subdomains were measured (or not) across all 22 studies. Survey data from 11 of the studies were then analyzed to assess similarities in the relative frequency with which culturally diverse households responded to questionnaire items related to these common domains/subdomains. The analysis confirmed that insufficient food quantity, inadequate food quality, and uncertainty and worry about food were a significant part of the food insecurity experience in all sampled cultures; concerns about social unacceptability emerged in all ethnographic accounts. Several subdomains were identified, such as concern over food safety and meal pattern disruption, with potentially important consequences for physical and psychological well-being. The comparative survey data showed that the relative frequency at which populations responded to domain-related questionnaire items was similar across all but a few cultures. Future food insecurity assessments should consider these core domains and subdomains as the starting point for measures that can generate rich information to inform food security policies and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares a qualitative and a quantitative (Rasch) method of item assessment for developing the content of a food insecurity scale for Bangladesh. Data are derived from the Bangladesh Food Insecurity Measurement and Validation Study, in which researchers collected 2 rounds of ethnographic information and 3 rounds of conventional household survey data between 2001 and 2003. The qualitative method of scale development relied on content experts and respondents themselves to evaluate household food insecurity items generated through ethnographic research. The quantitative method applied the Rasch model to assess the fit of the same items using representative survey data. The Rasch model was then used to test for differential item functioning (DIF) across diverse demographic and geographic subgroups. The qualitative assessment flagged and discarded 10 items, leaving 13. The Rasch assessment of infit and outfit flagged 3 items, and the Rasch DIF test discarded another 10 items, leaving a total of 10 items in the Rasch-derived scale. The 2 scales contained 8 of the same items. The qualitatively and quantitatively derived scales were highly correlated (r = 0.96, P < 0.01), and the 2 methods located 90% of households in the same food insecurity tercile. This convergence lends added confidence to the use of either scale for identifying food-insecure households in different regions of Bangladesh. Multiple methods should continue to be applied in a systematic and transparent way to lend additional credence to the results when they converge and to pinpoint directions for further clarification where they do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity is a daily reality for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Although its most extreme manifestations are often obvious, many other households facing constraints in their access to food are less identifiable. Operational agencies lack a method for differentiating households at varying degrees of food insecurity in order to target and evaluate their interventions. This chapter provides an overview of a set of papers associated with a research initiative that seeks to identify more precise, yet simple, measures of household food insecurity. The overview highlights three main conceptual developments associated with practical approaches to measuring constraints in access to food: 1) a shift from using measures of food availability and utilization to measuring "inadequate access"; 2) a shift from a focus on objective to subjective measures; and 3) a growing emphasis on fundamental measurement as opposed to reliance on distal, proxy measures. Further research is needed regarding 1) how well measures of household food insecurity designed for chronically food-insecure contexts capture the processes leading to, and experience of, acute food insecurity, 2) the impact of short-term shocks, such as major floods or earthquake, on household behaviors that determine responses to food security questions, 3) better measurement of the interaction between severity and frequency of household food insecurity behaviors, and 4) the determination of whether an individual's response to survey questions can be representative of the food insecurity experiences of all members of the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether social capital—a measure of trust, reciprocity and social networks—is positively associated with household food security, independent of household-level socioeconomic factors. Interviews were conducted in 330 low-income households from Hartford, Connecticut. Social capital was measured using a 7-item Likert scale and was analyzed using household- and community-level scores. Household food security and hunger were measured using the US Household Food Security Module. χ2 tests were used to examine associations between social capital, food security and household demographic characteristics. Logistic regression was used to examine whether household- and community-level social capital decreases the odds of household hunger, and to estimate which household characteristics increase the likelihood of having social capital. Consistent with our hypotheses, social capital, at both the household and community levels, is significantly associated with household food security in these data. Community-level social capital is significantly associated with decreased odds of experiencing hunger (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.47 [95% CI 0.28, 0.81], P<0.01), while controlling for household socioeconomic status. Results show that households with an elderly member are over two and a half times as likely to have high social capital (AOR=2.68 [1.22, 5.87], P<0.01) than are non-elderly households, after controlling for socioeconomic status. Having a household member who participates in a social or civic organization is also significantly associated with having higher levels of social capital. Social capital, particularly in terms of reciprocity among neighbors, contributes to household food security. Households may have similarly limited financial or food resources, but households with higher levels of social capital are less likely to experience hunger. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • Rural Ethiopian households exhibited significant intra-household nutrient inequities. • Conventional 'vulnerable groups' were not always most affected by inequity. • Inequities were greatest for 'invisible' nutrients (iron) • No factor consistently predicted detrimental inequity across groups and nutrients. • Programs must consider intra-household nutrient allocation for optimal targeting. Abstract Background Food assistance interventions directed at households may miss undernourished individuals if intra-household equity in nutrient allocation is assumed. A recent study from Ethiopia revealed that, while all age groups consumed calories in proportion to their fair share, iron and protein were inequitably allocated among household members. Further exploration of individual and household characteristics associated with these allocation patterns is necessary to gain a more complete understanding of existing disparities. Objective This paper sought to quantify energy, protein, and iron allocation inequity between four age and sex groups of household members (children and adults) commonly assumed to be disadvantaged versus preferentially treated in intra-household resource distribution. It then sought to identify individual and household factors that explained the inequity of intra-household nutrient allocation among these paired groups. Methods Data from a survey of 1185 households located in rural Oromiya and SNNPR regions of Ethiopia. A single quantitative 24-hour household-level dietary recall was collected from the primary food preparer who reported the proportion of household food distributed to each household member. Continuous ratios of relative calorie, protein, and iron adequacy for four pairs of age-sex groups (any child vs. any adult, any child vs. adult male, female child vs. male child, and adult female vs. adult male) in the household were computed and compared, along with a binary indicator of inequity. Logistic regressions and standard linear regression with Huber-White heteroscedasticity-adjusted standard errors were run to determine the predictors of household inequity for each pair-group and nutrient, on the full sample as well as on nutrient inadequate households. Results Common assumptions about inequitable distribution of nutrients within households were not consistently supported by this analysis. Significant intra-household nutrient inequities did exist in these rural Ethiopian households for certain nutrients, but household subgroups commonly presumed to be nutritionally vulnerable in the Ethiopian context were not always affected by detrimental inequity. Generally, household inequity favored children over adults or adult males, and female children over male children for protein consumption. Inequities were greatest against presumed vulnerable groups (adult women, children) for 'invisible' nutrients (iron) rather than calories or protein. There were relatively few households in which one of the interest groups (groups presumed vulnerable) experienced inequitable nutrient allocation and nutrient inadequacy. The number of households where inequity was present for a subgroup who also experienced nutrient inadequacy while the reference group (group presumed to be preferred) was nutrient adequate was negligible, suggesting that in very few of these household are there members who are "haves", benefiting nutritionally to the nutritional detriment of "have nots". The analysis of determinants did not reveal any single, consistent set of factors driving decisions across all pair groups and nutrients, but these factors were not substantially different for households that were and were not nutrient adequate. Household dependency ratio, higher relative male education, female household headship, and women's decision-making power provided mixed results for pairwise comparisons. Conclusions The variable pattern of nutrient inequities underscores the risk of overlooking intra-household nutrient allocation disparity or making assumptions about a particular intra-household food and nutrient distribution pattern in any context where programs are intended to benefit particular household members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]