Measurements of food security Flashcards
(26 cards)
The definition of the ideal food security measurement. Does the indicator exist?
- A single measure that is valid
and reliable, comparable over time and space, and which captures different elements of food security.
-There is no valid indicators exist that meet those criteria.
Why the measurement of per-capita caloric intake is not a precise method of measurement of food insecurity?
It measures only the quantity of food, but it does not
address many other elements of the complicated notion of “food security,” such as quality (dietary diversity and
micro-nutrient sufficiency), vulnerability and risks, and
fluctuations and trends in consumption over time.
Rapid and non-rapid measurements of food insecurity
- Food Consumption Score(FCS) with calorie uptake(underestimates undernourishment)
- Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCES)
The purpose of creating HFIAS and its definition
The HFIAS was designed to capture household behaviors signifying insufficient quality and quantity, as well as anxiety over insecure access. A standardized questionnaire
How FAO counts the number of food insecure people?
The proportion of three components :food availability, food needed, access
What program and scale was created for estimating the prevalence of food insecurity ?
Voices of the hungry project with the FIES scale(food insecurity experience scale) launched in 2013
On what terms and statements of the man’s everyday life FIES based
- Worrying about food
- Stretching food resources
- The quality of diet worsens
- Cutting portion sizes
- Skipping meals
- Starvation for one more days
Why the FIES scale was developed, how many countries uses it and what is FIES?On what pillar does FIES based?
As the experience of food insecurity is similar worldwide, FAO developed FIES scale, which is a reliable source. They developed a questionnaire with 8 questions. Used in 150 countries. Food accessibility
Gallup World Poll
GWP surveys nationally representative samples of the adult population
Mild food insecure when…
worrying about ability to obtain food
Moderate food insecure when….
- Compromising the quality and the amount of food
- Reducing quantities, skipping meals
Severe food insecurity when…
Experiencing hunger
How they counted if the country has enough food for the population?
They transform all the food produced in the country into calories and then they calculated the daily requirement of calories per a sedentary person.It also includes that the more the person consumes food , the more micro nutrients he gets.
6 dimensions of food insecurity
- Availability(average energy supply adequacy, average protein supply..)
- Physical access(percentage of paved roads over total roads, road density, rail lines density)
- Economic access( domestic price index. In the last ten years, prices are rising (it fluctuates, but the trend is still rising))
- Utilization(access to improved water sources, access to improved sanitation facilities.)
- Vulnerability(cereal import dependency ratio, percentage of arable land equipped for irrigation, value of food imports over total merchandise exports.)
- Shocks (domestic price volatility (variation), food production variability per capita, food supple variability per capita, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism.)
The difference between stunted, waisted and underweight
Stunted-you need to measure the height and know the date of birth. (age/height)
Waisted-(weight/height)
Underweight-(weight/age)
How many ways are there to determine food insecurity.Name them. The place and the year , they were established.
•5 ways to measure food security. They were defined in 2002 on the conference on Rome.
- FAO method- food balance sheets (some countries do not have enough facts and techniques to provide this information)
- Household income and expenditure surveys (the measurement of poverty). How much money I earned, taxes. For poor countries they make surveys.
- Dietary intake (24 hours recall). This is a way to assess zinc deficiency.
- Child nutritional status-anthropometric indicators.
- People’s experience of food insecure (Hugo prefers this method) (FIES)
Dimensions of outcomes of food insecurity
Mostly utilization(children under 5 and pregnant women (some other resources focus on fertile women). For the children you need the exact date of birth, sex, height and weight)
and access(prevalence of undernourishment, depth of food inadequacy)
Share of food expenditure of the poor. What is it?
An outcome of food insecurity from access category. How much you spend on the food of your income.
Difference between a millennium goal and world food summit goal
In 1996 they said that they want to reduce the number of food insecure people by two times. The millennium target(summit in 2000) was to reduce the percentage of undernourished people by half in 2015.Both conferences decided that the reference would be 1990/1992
•By 2015 780 million were undernourished. WFS(world food summit) target was 490 million. World food summit put the number as the goal, millennium goal assessed the percentage. That is why millennium goal is practically achieved, when WFS has to go from 780 to 490 million.
Is the number of undernourished people correct?
No, because the activity level was not taken into account. Also the numbers are talking only about the number of calories, but not the quality of food(nutritional value)
The disadvantage of FAO method
does not measure access (which is key to FS), it measures only availability
The disadvantage of household income and expenditure surveys
•Second method allows us to assess poverty (money needed to have access to food), but you spend money on others things as well, and you do not have a choice
Child nutritional status-anthropometric indicators. Disadvantage.
child nutritional status is the consequence of food insecurity. All the methods are proxies. (eg. Body mass index- we want to assess body fat, but instead of we are measuring the height and weight) Proxies- because they are close enough, but not the same thing.
Scales may not be accurate (bad calibration, uneven surface). Accurate scales are expensive
• - Height (or length for babies). If standing not straight -> inaccuracy
Dietary intake (24 hours recall). Disadvantage.
In order to consume the food, you need to have access to It.
There are some micronutrients that are not common in our diet- 20 day recall might be needed
• Usually 3 surveys in a row are done e.g. 3 consecutive days
• Inaccurate due to imposed changes in the diet or lies
• Portion size, preparation, additives, types of food are asked for
