An Adapted Version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Insecurity Module Is a Valid Tool for Assessing Household Food Insecurity in Campinas, Brazil

Abstract

Until recently, Brazil did not have a national instrument with which to assess household food insecurity (FI). The objectives of this study were as follows: 1) to describe the process of adaptation and validation of the 15-item USDA FI module, and 2) to assess its validity in the city of Campinas. The USDA scale was translated into Portuguese and subsequently tested for content and face validity through content expert and focus groups made up of community members. This was followed by a quantitative validation based on a convenience (n = 125) and a representative (n = 847) sample. Key adaptations involved replacing the term "balanced meal" with "healthy and varied diet," to construct items as questions rather than statements, and to ensure that respondents understood that information would not be used to determine program eligibility. Chronbach's alpha was 0.91 and the scale item response curves were parallel across the 4 household income strata. FI severity level was strongly associated in a dose-response manner (P < 0.001) with income strata and the probability of daily intake of fruits, vegetables, meat/fish, and dairy. These findings were replicated in the 2 independent survey samples. Results indicate that the adapted version of the USDA food insecurity module is valid for the population of Campinas. This validation methodology has now been replicated in urban and/or rural areas of 4 additional states with similar results. Thus, Brazil now has a household food insecurity instrument that can be used to set national goals, to follow progress, and to evaluate its national hunger and poverty eradication programs.

Food insecurity and nutritional status of individuals in a socially vulnerable situation in Brazil

“…It allows the household's situation to be classified as one of food security, mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity and severe food insecurity. This questionnaire is an adapted version of the U.S. Household Food Security Module (HHFSM) used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 14,16,23,24 .…”

The association between intimate partner domestic violence and the food security status of poor families in Brazil

“…Data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in 2009 using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (BFIS) (2) , which assesses the access dimension of food and nutrition security (i.e. food security), showed that 30·2 % of Brazilian households live in a state of food insecurity and in 5 % of these cases the situation is considered severe (3) .…”

Inverse association between social support and household food insecurity in a metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Since 2004, the assessment of household food insecurity (HFI) has been included in the major national surveys (16)(17)(18) , using an FI experience-based scale that was developed by the US Department of Agriculture (19)(20)(21)(22)(23) and adapted and validated for the Brazilian context (2,24,25) . The first diagnosis of HFI in Brazilian households was provided by the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) in 2004 (16) .…”