Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Internal validity of the Food Access Survey Tool in assessing household food insecurity in rural Zambia

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Food Security Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We assessed the internal validity of the Food Access Survey Tool (FAST) using data from households (n = 907) enrolled in an efficacy trial of biofortified maize in rural Zambia. This scale assesses food insecurity over a 6-month recall period. A Rasch partial credit model was used to evaluate item performance. Unidimensionality was assessed by principal component analysis, monotonicity was assessed by non-parametric methods, and differential item functioning (DIF) by several characteristics was assessed by cumulative ordinal logistic regression models. One item (frequency of consuming three square meals) did not fit the partial credit model. The remaining eight items fit in a primary single statistical dimension and item category severity increased monotonically with increasing severity of food insecurity. We identified statistically significant DIF in three subgroup comparisons, but effect sizes of total DIF were considered practically insignificant (<2 %). After excluding the item on “square meals,” the FAST serves as an internally valid tool to measure household food insecurity in rural Zambia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bland, J. M., & Altman, D. G. (1997). Cronbach’s alpha. BMJ, 314(7080), 572.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bouis, H. E., Eozenou, P., & Rahman, A. (2011). Food prices, household income, and resource allocation: socioeconomic perspectives on their effects on dietary quality and nutritional status. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 32(1 Suppl), S14–S23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J., Webb, P., & Houser, R. (2003). Measuring food insecurity: Going beyond indicators of income and anthropometry. Washington: Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA), Academy of Educational Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J., Frongillo, E. A., Rogers, B. L., Webb, P., Wilde, P. E., & Houser, R. (2006a). Commonalities in the experience of household food insecurity across cultures: what are measures missing? The Journal of Nutrition, 136(5), 1438S–1448S.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J., Wilde, P. E., Webb, P., Rogers, B. L., & Houser, R. F. (2006b). Comparison of a qualitative and a quantitative approach to developing a household food insecurity scale for Bangladesh. The Journal of Nutrition, 136(5), 1420S–1430S.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J., Swindale, A., & Bilinsky, P. (2007). Household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) for measurement of food access: Indicator guide (version 3). Washington: Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project, Academy for Educational Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. M., & Tembo, G. (2011). The effect of food insecurity on mental health: panel evidence from rural Zambia. Social Science & Medicine, 73(7), 1071–1079.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, C. L., Nord, M., Lofton, K. L., & Yadrick, K. (2004). Food security of older children can be assessed using a standardized survey instrument. The Journal of Nutrition, 134(10), 2566–2572.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Toledo Vianna, R. P., Hromi-Fiedler, A. J., Segall-Correa, A. M., & Pérez-Escamilla, R. (2012). Household food insecurity in small municipalities in Northeastern Brazil: a validation study. Food Security, 4(2), 295–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deitchler M., Ballard T., Swindale A., & Coates J. (2010). Validation of a measure of household hunger for cross-cultural use. Washington, DC: Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance II Project (FANTA-2).

  • Derrickson, J. P., Fisher, A. G., & Anderson, J. E. (2000). The core food security module scale measure is valid and reliable when used with Asians and Pacific Islanders. The Journal of Nutrition, 130(11), 2666–2674.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2002). The state of food insecurity in the world 2001. Rome.

  • FAO, IFAD, & WFP. (2014). The state of food insecurity in the world 2014. Strengthening the enabling environment for food security and nutrition. Rome, Italy.

  • Frongillo, E. A., Jr. (1999). Validation of measures of food insecurity and hunger. The Journal of Nutrition, 129(2S Suppl), 506S–509S.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gulliford, M.C., Mahabir, D., & Rocke, B. (2004). Reliability and validity of a short form household food security scale in a Caribbean community. BMC Public Health, 422. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-4-22.

  • Hackett, M., Melgar-Quinonez, H., & Uribe, M.C. (2008). Internal validity of a household food security scale is consistent among diverse populations participating in a food supplement program in Colombia. BMC Public Health, 8175. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-175.

  • Hattie, J. (1985). Methodology review: assessing unidimensionality of tests and items. Applied Psychological Measurement, 9(2), 139–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D., Ngure, F. M., Pelto, G., & Young, S. L. (2013). What are we assessing when we measure food security? A compendium and review of current metrics. Advances in Nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 4(5), 481–505. doi:10.3945/an.113.004119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, L. L., Melgar-Quinonez, H. R., Lamp, C. L., Johns, M. C., Sutherlin, J. M., & Harwood, J. O. (2002). Food security and nutritional outcomes of preschool-age Mexican-American children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 102(7), 924–929.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kristjansson, E., Aylesworth, R., Mcdowell, I., & Zumbo, B. D. (2005). A comparison of four methods for detecting differential item functioning in ordered response items. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 65(6), 935–953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ligtvoet, R., Van der Ark, L. A., te Marvelde, J. M., & Sijtsma, K. (2010). Investigating an invariant item ordering for polytomously scored items. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 70(4), 578–595.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masters, G. N. (1982). A Rasch model for partial credit scoring. Psychometrika, 47(2), 149–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell D., & Caldwell R. (2008). Coping strategies index: Field methods manual. second edition. Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc (CARE).

  • Maxwell, D., Caldwell, R., & Langworthy, M. (2008). Measuring food insecurity: can an indicator based on localized coping behaviors be used to compare across contexts? Food Policy, 33(6), 533–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melgar-Quinonez, H., Nord, M., Perez-Escamilla, R., & Segall-Correa, A. (2007). Psychometric properties of a modified US-household food security survey module in Campinas, Brazil. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 62(5), 665–673.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Menon, P., Ruel, M., Arimond, M., & Ferrus, A. (2002). Childcare, nutrition, and health in the Central Plateau of Haiti: The role of community, household, and caregiver resources. Haiti: Report of the IFPRI-Cornell World Vision Baseline Survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Na, M., Gross, A. L., & West, K. P. (2015). Validation of the food access survey tool to assess household food insecurity in rural Bangladesh. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 863. doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2208-1.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nanama, S., & Frongillo, E. A. (2012). Altered social cohesion and adverse psychological experiences with chronic food insecurity in the non-market economy and complex households of Burkina Faso. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 74(3), 444–451. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.11.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nord M., & Bickel G. (2002). Measuring children’s food security in U.S. households, 1995–99. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture; Report No.: Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report No. 25.

  • Pallant, J. F., & Tennant, A. (2007). An introduction to the Rasch measurement model: an example using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46(1), 1–18.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, A.C., Siamusantu, W., Chileshe, J., Schulze, K.J., Barffour M., Craft, N.E., Molobeka, N., Kalungwana, N., Arguello, M.A., Mitra, M., Caswell, B.L., Klemm, R.D.W., & West, K. P. (2016). Provitamin A biofortified maize raises serum β-carotene, but not retinol, in marginally nourished children: a cluster-randomized trial in rural Zambia. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In Submission.

  • Perez-Escamilla, R., Segall-Correa, A. M., Kurdian Maranha, L., Sampaio Md Mde, F., Marin-Leon, L., & Panigassi, G. (2004). 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. The Journal of Nutrition, 134(8), 1923–1928.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Psaki, S., Bhutta, Z. A., Ahmed, T., Ahmed, S., Bessong, P., Islam, M., John, S., Kosek, M., Lima, A., Nesamvuni, C., Shrestha, P., Svensen, E., McGrath, M., Richard, S., Seidman, J., Caulfield, L., Miller, M., Checkley, W., & MALED Network Investigators. (2012). Household food access and child malnutrition: results from the eight-country MAL-ED study. Population Health Metrics, 10(1), doi:10.1186/1478-7954-10-24.

  • Radimer, K.L., Olson, C.M., Greene, J.C., Campbell, C.C., & Habicht, J. (1992). Understanding hunger and developing indicators to assess it in women and children. Journal of Nutrition Education, 24(1, Supplement 1), 36S–44S.

  • Ruel, M. T., Garrett, J. L., Hawkes, C., & Cohen, M. J. (2010). The food, fuel, and financial crises affect the urban and rural poor disproportionately: a review of the evidence. The Journal of Nutrition, 140(1), 170S–176S.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sahn D.E. (1989). Seasonal variability in third world agriculture: The consequences for food security. Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Smith, A. B., Rush, R., Fallowfield, L. J., Velikova, G., & Sharpe, M. (2008). Rasch fit statistics and sample size considerations for polytomous data. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 833-2288-8-33.doi:10.1186/1471-2288-8-33.

  • Stochl, J., Jones, P. B., & Croudace, T. J. (2012). Mokken scale analysis of mental health and well-being questionnaire item responses: a non-parametric IRT method in empirical research for applied health researchers. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 12(1), 74. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-12-74.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Studdert, L. J., Frongillo, E. A., & Valois, P. (2001). Household food insecurity was prevalent in Java during Indonesia's economic crisis. The Journal of Nutrition, 131(10), 2685–2691.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Timmerman, M. E., & Lorenzo-Seva, U. (2011). Dimensionality assessment of ordered polytomous items with parallel analysis. Psychological Methods, 16(2), 209.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webb, P., Coates, J., Frongillo, E. A., Rogers, B. L., Swindale, A., & Bilinsky, P. (2006). Measuring household food insecurity: why it's so important and yet so difficult to do. The Journal of Nutrition, 136(5), 1404S–1408S.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wold, S., Esbensen, K., & Geladi, P. (1987). Principal component analysis. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2(1), 37–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu M., & Adams R. (2007). Applying the rasch model to psycho-social measurement: A practical approach. Educational Measurement Solutions Melbourne.

  • Zumbo, B. D. (1999). A handbook on the theory and methods of differential item functioning (DIF): Logistic regression modeling as a unitary framework for Binary and Likert-type (ordinal) item scores. Ottawa, ON: Directorate of Human Resources Research and Evaluation, Department of National Defense.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by HarvestPlus (grant 8251) and the Sight and Life Global Nutrition Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of HarvestPlus. We also acknowledge the technical and analytic guidance of Dr. Keith P. West, Jr. at Johns Hopkins University, as well as assistance in the field from Ward Siamusantu of the National Food and Nutrition Commission, Zambia. MN and ACP had primary responsibility for final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Muzi Na, Lee S. F. Wu, Bess L. Caswell & Amanda C. Palmer

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Alden L. Gross

  3. Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Sameera A. Talegawkar

Authors
  1. Muzi Na
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alden L. Gross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lee S. F. Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Bess L. Caswell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sameera A. Talegawkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Amanda C. Palmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda C. Palmer.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Na, M., Gross, A.L., Wu, L.S.F. et al. Internal validity of the Food Access Survey Tool in assessing household food insecurity in rural Zambia. Food Sec. 8, 679–688 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0573-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0573-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation