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This page provides the following information:
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 Food Security in the U.S.: 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
120:1557S-1600S, 1990.)
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 rather mild food insecurity 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 Food Security in the U.S.:
Definitions of Food Security for further information.
For most 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.")
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.
Survey Questions Used by USDA
to Assess Household Food Security
1. "We worried whether our food would run out before we got
money to buy more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for
you in the last 12 months?
2. "The food that we bought just didn't last and we didn't have
money to get more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for
you in the last 12 months?
3. "We couldn't afford to eat balanced meals." Was that often,
sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
4. In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the
household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because
there wasn't enough money for food? (Yes/No)
5. (If yes to question 4) How often did this happen--almost
every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2
months?
6. In the last 12 months, did you ever eat less than you felt
you should because there wasn't enough money for food? (Yes/No)
7. In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn't eat,
because there wasn't enough money for food? (Yes/No)
8. In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there
wasn't enough money for food? (Yes/No)
9. In the last 12 months did you or other adults in your
household ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough
money for food? (Yes/No)
10. (If yes to question 9) How often did this happen--almost
every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2
months?
(Questions 11-18 were asked only if the household
included children age 0-17)
11. "We relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed our
children because we were running out of money to buy food." Was
that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12
months?
12. "We couldn't feed our children a balanced meal, because we
couldn't afford that." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for
you in the last 12 months?
13. "The children were not eating enough because we just
couldn't afford enough food." Was that often, sometimes, or never
true for you in the last 12 months?
14. In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of any of
the children's meals because there wasn't enough money for food?
(Yes/No)
15. In the last 12 months, were the children ever hungry but you
just couldn't afford more food? (Yes/No)
16. In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip a
meal because there wasn't enough money for food? (Yes/No)
17. (If yes to question 16) How often did this happen--almost
every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2
months?
18. 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?
(Yes/No)
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 45,000 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.