Abstract
United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecure as answering affirmatively to three or more food insecurity questions describing a household’s ability to acquire enough food. Households indicating low levels of food insecurity (one or two affirmative responses) are considered food secure. This paper compares the characteristics of households with one or two positive survey responses (termed marginally secure in this paper) to those with zero positive responses (food secure) and those with three or more positive responses (food insecure). The analysis utilizes Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data to compare the characteristics and food purchasing of food secure, marginally secure and food insecure households using binomial and multinomial logistic regression and t-tests. Binomial logistic regression models indicate that grouping insecure and marginally secure households together does not change predictors of food insecurity. Multinomial logistic regression models suggest a three category definition of food insecurity is appropriate because there are distinctions among the three categories. There are significant differences in food spending across the groups. Prevalence of U.S. food insecurity and need for food assistance may be underestimated because marginally food secure households are considered food secure. The current measure fails to recognize that marginally secure households may experience poorer quality of life as do food insecure households.
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Notes
The Food Security Core Module questions go from the least severe food insecure conditions to the most severe. The first three questions are: (1) “We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.” (2) “The food that we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.” (3) “We couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.” The responses for each question are: Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
An expert panel advised USDA to revise food security labels to be food secure (unchanged) and low food security (formerly food insecure) after an assessment of the measure. The most severe food insecurity, food insecurity with hunger, was renamed very low food security (National Research Council 2005, 2006). Because USDA continued to use the labels food secure and food insecure in recent reports (Nord et al. 2008), and because this paper does not include a discussion of food insecurity with hunger the former labels are used.
Food Stamp Participation is used as a control variable in the analysis. For readers unfamiliar with the Food Stamp Program a description follows. The program provides funds for low-income households meeting certain eligibility requirements to purchase food at eligible retailers. Benefits are allocated based on household size and financial need and dispensed through government issued electronic debit cards that participants can use to make food purchases.
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Coleman-Jensen, A.J. U.S. Food Insecurity Status: Toward a Refined Definition. Soc Indic Res 95, 215–230 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9455-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9455-4