|
This page provides an overview of how household food
security and food insecurity are measured. For detailed
technical information on measurement methods, questionnaires,
and calculating food security scales, see household
survey tools.
What Is Food Security?
Food security for a household means access by all members
at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.
Food security includes at a minimum:
- The ready availability of nutritionally adequate and
safe foods.
- Assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially
acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency
food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping
strategies).
...and Food Insecurity?
Food insecurity is limited or uncertain availability
of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or
uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially
acceptable ways.
(Definitions are from the Life Sciences Research Office,
S.A. Andersen, ed., "Core Indicators of Nutritional
State for Difficult to Sample Populations,"
The Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 120, 1990, 1557S-1600S.)
Does USDA Measure Hunger?
USDA does not have a measure of hunger or the number
of hungry people. Prior to 2006, USDA described households
with very low food security as "food insecure with
hunger," and characterized them as households in
which one or more people were hungry at times during the
year because they could not afford enough food. "Hunger,"
in that description, referred to "the uneasy or painful
sensation caused by lack of food." In 2006, USDA
introduced the new description
"very low food security" to replace "food
insecurity with hunger," recognizing more explicitly
that although hunger is related to food insecurity, it
is a different phenomenon. Food insecurity is a household-level
economic and social condition of limited access to food,
while hunger is an individual-level physiological condition
that may result from food insecurity.
Information about the incidence of hunger is of considerable
interest and potential value for policy and program design.
But providing precise and useful information about hunger
is hampered by lack of a consistent meaning of the word.
"Hunger" is understood variously by different
people to refer to conditions across a broad range of
severity, from the uneasy or painful sensation caused
by lack of food to prolonged clinical undernutrition.
USDA sought guidance from the Committee on National Statistics
(CNSTAT) of the National Academies on the use of the word
"hunger" in connection with food insecurity.
The independent panel of experts convened by CNSTAT concluded
that in official statistics, resource-constrained hunger
(i.e., physiological hunger resulting from food insecurity),
"...should refer to a potential consequence of food
insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack
of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or
pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation."
Validated methods have not yet been developed to measure
resource-constrained hunger in this sense, in the context
of U.S. conditions. Such measurement would require collection
of more detailed and extensive information on physiological
experiences of individual household members than could
be accomplished effectively in the context of USDA’s
annual household food security survey.
USDA’s measurement of food insecurity, then, provides
some information about the economic and social contexts
that may lead to hunger but does not assess the extent
to which hunger actually ensues.
How Are Food Security and Insecurity Measured?
The food security status of each household lies somewhere
along a continuum extending from high food security to
very low food security. This continuum is divided into
four ranges, characterized as follows:
-
High food security—Households
had no problems, or anxiety about, consistently accessing
adequate food.
-
Marginal food security—Households
had problems at times, or anxiety about, accessing
adequate food, but the quality, variety, and quantity
of their food intake were not substantially reduced.
-
Low food security—Households
reduced the quality, variety, and desirability of
their diets, but the quantity of food intake and normal
eating patterns were not substantially disrupted.
-
Very low food security—At
times during the year, eating patterns of one or more
household members were disrupted and food intake reduced
because the household lacked money and other resources
for food.
USDA introduced the above labels for ranges of food security
in 2006. See "Hunger and Food Security" for further information on the
labels.
For some reporting purposes, USDA describes households
with high or marginal food security as food secure and
those with low or very low food security as food insecure.
Placement on this continuum is determined by the household’s
responses to a series of questions about behaviors and
experiences associated with difficulty in meeting food
needs. The questions cover a wide range of severity of
food insecurity.
Least severe:
Was this statement often, sometimes, or never true for
you in the last 12 months? "We worried whether
our food would run out before we got money to buy more."
Somewhat more severe:
Was this statement often, sometimes, or never true for
you in the last 12 months? "We couldn't afford
to eat balanced meals."
Midrange severity:
In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of
your meals or skip meals because there wasn't enough
money for food?
Most severe:
In the last 12 months, did you ever not eat for a whole
day because there wasn't enough money for food?
In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever
not eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough
money for food?
Every question specifies the period (last 12 months)
and specifies lack of resources as the reason for the
behavior or experience ("we couldn't afford more
food," "there was not enough money for food.")
See
the entire survey module
Food Insecure. Households that report three or more conditions that
indicate food insecurity are classified as "food
insecure." The three least severe conditions that
would result in a household being classified as food insecure
are:
- They worried whether their food would run out before
they got money to buy more.
- The food they bought didn't last, and they didn't
have money to get more.
- They couldn't afford to eat balanced meals.
Households are also classified as food insecure if they
report any combination of three or more conditions, including
any more severe conditions.
Very Low Food Security. To be classified as having "very low food security,"
households with no children present must report at least
the three conditions listed above and also that:
- Adults ate less than they felt they should.
- Adults cut the size of meals or skipped meals and
did so in 3 or more months.
Many report additional, more severe experiences and behaviors
as well. If there are children in the household, their
experiences and behaviors are also assessed, and an additional
two affirmative responses are required for a classification
of very low food security.
How Many Households Are Interviewed in the National
Food Security Surveys?
USDA’s food security statistics are based on a
national food security survey conducted as an annual supplement
to the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS
is a nationally representative survey conducted by the
Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
CPS provides data for the Nation's monthly unemployment
statistics and annual income and poverty statistics. In
December of each year, after completing the labor force
interview, about 50,000 households respond to the food
security questions and to questions about food spending
and about the use of Federal and community food assistance
programs. The households interviewed in the CPS are selected
to be representative of all civilian households at State
and national levels.
|
