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This page provides information on how to measure household
food security and food insecurity using household or individual
surveys:
Using these standardized modules and procedures will
strengthen validity and reliability of the resulting measures
and assure maximum comparability with national statistics
on food security and hunger.
Resources
Guide
to Measuring Household Food Security, Revised 2000 —The
Guide is the most authoritative and accessible resource
on how to measure household food security. It provides
detailed guidance for researchers on how to use the survey
module to measure food security and food insecurity. Statistics from surveys that use these methods
will be directly comparable to published National statistics.
This Guide supersedes the Guide to
Implementing the Core Food Security Module, published
by USDA in 1997.
The Guide includes:
- Food security measurement concepts.
- Theoretical and statistical underpinnings of the
methodology.
- Wording for the 18 questions in the survey module.
- Screening specifications to minimize respondent burden
without substantially biasing the data.
- Specifications for coding and scoring items.
- Guidance for using the standard six-item short form
of the survey module.
| NOTES
ON RECENT CHANGES IN FOOD SECURITY
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| REPORTING LANGUAGE |
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| SURVEY MODULES |
| Since publication of the Guide, minor changes in wording of questions have been made and the order of presentation of questions has been changed. Use the modules below rather than those in the Guide to include these changes. |
Questionnaires
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U.S. Household Food Security
Survey Module
(18-items) Three-stage design with screeners. Screening
keeps respondent burden to the minimum needed to
get reliable data. Most households in a general
population survey are asked only three questions
(five if there are children in the household). The
questionnaire has been modified slightly from that in the Guide and the questions have been re-ordered to group the child-referenced questions after the adult-referenced questions;
download it in the format that works for you: PDF
or Microsoft Word.
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U.S. Adult Food Security
Survey Module
(10 items) Three-stage design with screeners. Screening
keeps respondent burden to the minimum needed to
get reliable data. Most households in a general
population survey are asked only three questions.
The questionnaire has been modified very slightly from that specified
for households without children in the Guide;
download it in the format that works for you: PDF
or Microsoft Word.
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Advantages |
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- Less respondent burden.
- Improves comparability of food security statistics
between households with and without children and
among households with children in different age
ranges.
- Avoids asking questions about children’s
food security, which can be sensitive in some
survey contexts.
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Limitations |
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- Does not provide specific information on food
security of children.
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Six-item Short Form of the
Food Security Survey Module
For surveys that cannot implement the 18-item or
10-item measures, this "Short Form" six-item
scale provides a reasonably reliable substitute.
It uses a subset of the standard 18 items. This
is the same six-item questionnaire that is in the
Guide; download it in the format that works
for you: PDF
or Microsoft
Word.
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Advantages |
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- Less respondent burden for food-insecure households.
Can be screened after three items to reduce burden
for households with no food access problems.
- Prevalence estimates of food insecurity and
very low food security are only minimally biased
relative to those based on 18-item or 10-item
modules.
- Standard short form with known relationship
to full module.
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Limitations |
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- Less precise and somewhat less reliable than
18-item measure.
- Does not measure the most severe levels of
food insecurity.
- Does not ask about conditions of children in
the household.
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Self-Administered
Food Security Survey Module for Youth Ages 12 and
Older
This survey module was adapted from the U.S. Household
Food Security Survey Module for self-administration
by children ages 12 and older. Development and assessment
of the module is described in The Journal
of Nutrition article: Connell, Carol L., Mark
Nord, Kristi L. Lofton, and Kathy Yadrick. 2004.
"Food Security of Older Children Can Be Assessed
Using a Standardized Survey Instrument," The
Journal of Nutrition, vol. 134, pp. 2566-2572.
Download the questionnaire in the format that works
for you: PDF
or Microsoft
Word.
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Spanish Translation of the
U.S. Food Security Survey Module
A Spanish translation of the U.S. Household Food
Security Survey Module developed by UCLA researchers
is available on-line from the Journal of Nutrition.
This work was funded through a grant from ERS's
Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program,
and ERS recommends this translation for use among
Spanish-speaking populations within the United States.
The Journal has made the entire article, "Development
of a Spanish-Language Version of the U.S. Household
Food Security Survey Module," including
the Spanish-language
module and a description of its development
and testing, publicly available at no cost from
their website. |
Survey Questions on Other Food-Related Issues
Additional questionnaire items about food security, food
sufficiency, food expenditures, use of food programs,
and other ways of coping with food insecurity are included
in the CPS Food Security Supplements but are not in the
core food security module. Go to the food
security data page to download any of the CPS Food
Security Supplement Questionnaires.
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