Validation of a Measure of Household Hunger for Cross-Cultural Use

Governments and international and national agencies implementing food and nutrition programs need information on the population’s food insecurity to inform decision making, monitor change, and evaluate impact.  Often, comparative data on food insecurity are also needed.  Whether it is to make comparisons between population groups, diverse cultural settings, or cross-nationally, having comparable information on food insecurity enriches the interpretation and broadens the potential use of the data.  Few recognized measures of food insecurity allow for making such cross-cultural comparisons, however, resulting in a dearth of important information needed for geographic targeting, prioritization of interventions, and cross-country evaluation of policies and programs. 

This report describes the findings from a study carried out by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance II Project (FANTA-2) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Tufts University.  The aim of the study was to evaluate the internal, external and cross-cultural validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), a 9 item 4 frequency measurement scale to assess the access component of household food insecurity in resource-poor areas. Statistical methods based on the Rasch measurement model were used to assess the validity of HFIAS data collected in seven diverse contexts: Mozambique (2 datasets), Malawi, West Bank/Gaza Strip, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa.  The results of these analyses were then used to revise the HFIAS, as necessary.

The study shows that a reduced scale comprised of 3 items and 3 frequency categories meets the criteria for internal, external and cross-cultural validity for the seven data sets analyzed and may have validity in broader geographic areas as well.  Potential users should note that this reduced 3 item 3 frequency scale does not provide a measure of the access component of food insecurity but provides a measure of household hunger. Use of the 3 item 3 frequency scale should not preclude the concurrent use of a culturally-specific measure of food insecurity in those contexts or settings where a valid, culturally-specific measure of food insecurity is available or in the process of being developed.

This report was funded by USAID’s Office of Health, Infectious Disease and Nutrition (HIDN) in the Bureau for Global Health.  Financial support from the European Commission (EC) through the EC-FAO programme on linking information and decision-making to improve food security (www.foodsec.org) and Tufts University is gratefully acknowledged.

The following collaborators contributed HFIAS data to the study: in Mozambique, the FAO Representation through a grant from the Belgium Survival Fund; in Malawi, the Department of HIV and AIDS and Nutrition and UNICEF; in West Bank and Gaza Strip, the FAO Jerusalem office; in Kenya, Samwel Mbugua and Egerton University: Human Nutrition; in Zimbabwe, the Center for Applied Social Science at the University of Zimbabwe; and in South Africa, the South Africa Human Sciences Research Council. Without the collaboration of these individuals and organizations, the study would not have been possible.

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