Discussion Paper on Household and Individual Food Insecurity
Prepared by Valerie Tarasuk
March 2001
The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of Health Canada.
© Valerie Tarasuk, 2001.
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Executive Summary
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
PART
1: WHAT IS FOOD INSECURITY?
Food
Quantity
Food
Quality
Psychological
Dimensions
Social
Dimensions
Food
Insecurity as a Managed Process
Temporality
PART 2: WHY MONITOR FOOD INSECURITY IN CANADA?
Nutritional
Implications
Implications
for Physical Health
Social
Implications
Monitoring
Food Insecurity
PART 3: MEASURING FOOD INSECURITY
1.
DIRECT INDICATORS
Food
Sufficiency Status Question
Community
Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) and Radimer/Cornell Questionnaires
U.S.
Food Security Core Module
Limitations
of the FSCM
Assessing
the Validity of Food Security Measurement Tools
Assessing
Instrument Reliability and Sensitivity to Change Over Time
Individual
vs Household Measures
The
Measurement of Food Insecurity in Canada
Other
Considerations in the Use of Direct Measures of Food Insecurity
Selection
of Survey Vehicle
Sampling
Screening
The
Sensitive Nature of Food Insecurity
Translation
and Cultural Adaptation
Food
Security Measurement in Canadian Context
2. INDIRECT INDICATORS
Indicators
of Resource Constraint
Income-Based
Measures of Poverty
Income
Source as an Indication of Poverty
Indicators
of Extreme Financial Hardship
Indicators
of Resource Augmentation Strategies (e.g., Food Bank Usage)
Food
Bank Utilization Statistics
Utilization
Statistics for Other Food-Security Related Programs
Indicators
of Programmatic Activity Related to Food
PART
4: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK
SUMMARY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
Appendix
A. The U.S. Food Security Core Module Questionnaire
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