VALIDATION OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL MEASURES

OF HUNGER AND FOOD INSECURITY

Kendall et al.,1995

Mumu & Dian

INTRODUCTION•Food security for households and

individuals has long been a concern in the international nutrition community, but has only recently been recognized as relevant for food rich countries such as the United States.

•The Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity measurement specific nutrition variables to assess the criterion-related validity of the measures and a more sophisticated analytic survey approach

OBJECTIVE

•To assess the validity of the Radimer/Cornell measurement that can be constructed from information available from the CPS data to estimate the prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in the United States.

MATERIAL AND METHODS• Methods: Survey of households• Population 3433 HH stratified random sampling

sample: 193 women and children • Time: January-July 1993 • Location: a rural county of New York State.• Methods

▫ 1st interview: demographic characteristics, risk factors for food insecurity and the Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity items (Table 2)

▫ 2nd interview: frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption

inventory of household food supplies contained 51 food items

MATERIAL AND METHODS..cont’d• Assessment of validity

▫ construct validity▫ internal consistency Cronbach's alpha▫ criterion-related validity• Analytic procedures.• cumulative logit model

trend cross the food insecurity groups for the categorical demographic variables

• linear test for trends to assess whether the percentage of the sampleparticipating in food assistance programs was

related to food insecurity status• regression analysis

a linear trend across food insecurity groups for the household food inventory scores and the frequency of consumption of fruits and vegetables.

RESULTS• Sample characteristics

▫ One quarter of the sample earned less than $10,000, and 37% earned more than $25,000.

▫ 21% were participating in the food stamp program at the time of the survey.

▫ 99% of the population is white and the primary economic activity is dairy farming.

• Construct validity of measuresThe factor loadings of the four-factor solution after oblique rotation (table 3), confirmed several aspects of the Radimer theoretical framework:▫ Hunger and food insecurity are experienced differently at the

household level; ▫ the individual level has an adult aspect and a child aspect that

are distinct; and ▫ diet has two different components, one related to the amount

of food eaten (diet quantity) and one related to thequality of diet.

RESULTS..cont’d• Construction of hunger and food insecurity measures

(4groupings)▫ A child hunger measure corresponding to the child factor included

the two child diet quantity items 12 and 13. ▫ A household insecure measure that included the four household

level items 1, 3, 4 and 5 corresponded to the items in the household factor.

▫ An individual insecure measure was constructed from the three adult level items 7, 8 and 9

▫ The child diet quality item 11 corresponded to the items in the adult factor and the diet quality factor.

• Internal consistency of measures▫ The Cronbach's alpha was 0.84 for the household insecure measure, ▫ 0.86 for the individual insecure measure ▫ 0.85 for the child hunger measure.

RESULTS..cont’d• Criterion-related validity four groups, comparing demographic

characteristics, household food inventory scores andfrequency of fruit and vegetable consumption across groups. ▫ a food secure group (46.6%), individuals who answered "not

true" to all hunger and food in security items; ▫ a household insecure group (25.9%) individuals who answered

"somewhat or often true" to one or more of the household level items 1, 4, 5 or 6;

▫ an individual insecure group (17.1%) members answered "somewhat or often true“ to adult level items 8,9 or 10 or to the child diet quality item 12, but not to items 13 or 14 about the quantity of children's intake;

▫ a child hunger group (10.4%) members answered positively to item 13 or 14 about the quantity of children's intake.

• Prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in the sample▫ at the household level (50.0% of households), as expected based

upon the conceptual framework. ▫ at the individual level, 26.3% of households experienced food

insecurity at the in dividual level▫ 10.5% of households had children who were not getting enough to

eat.

DISCUSSION• The results from the present survey confirm the earlier finding

of a progression in the severity of hunger and food insecurity, from household-level food insecurity to adult-level food insecurity to child hunger.

• The child diet quantity items can be used to identify households with hungry children, to allow households with child hunger to be clearly differentiated from those experiencing individual-level food insecurity among adult members.

• Separate measures for the three levels of food insecurity allow identification of the nature of food insecurity (household vs. individual) and the individuals within a household who are affected.

• Assessment of validity aspects the internal consistency of items within measures, and construct and criterion-related validity. ▫ The Cronbach's alpha of the three measures indicated that the

measures had satisfactory internal consistency. ▫ The factor analysis supported the conceptual framework that

hunger and food insecurity have distinct levels and components and supported the construct validity of the measurement instrument.

RECOMMENDATION

•The child diet quality item grouped with the adult items to form a measure to identify households at risk of individual-level food insecurity.

•Anyone who answers "sometimes true" or "often true" to any item in a measure considered food insecure.

LESSON LEARNED

•Broaden conceptualization of food insecurity using Radimer/Cornell measures.

•Although a range of demographic characteristic found in the sample, it is not known if the research can be generalized to other populations such as urbans, non white and homeless.

•Demonstrated Radimer/Cornell measures to differentiate experience of progressive severe hunger and food insecurity.