Validation of Food Security Measures for the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Kirang Kim; Seo Ah Hong; Sung Ok Kwon; Bo Youl Choi; Ga-Young Kim; Se-Young Oh

doi:10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.6.771

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Kim, Hong, Kwon, Choi, Kim, and Oh: Validation of Food Security Measures for the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Original Article

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2011; 16(6): 771-781.

Published online: 31 December 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.6.771

Validation of Food Security Measures for the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Kirang Kim, Seo Ah Hong, Sung Ok Kwon¹⁾, Bo Youl Choi, Ga-Young Kim¹⁾, Se-Young Oh¹⁾

Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University, College of Medicine, Institute for Community Health, Seoul, Korea.

¹⁾Department of Food and Nutrition, Research Institute of Human Ecology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Se-Young Oh, Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoigi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Korea. Tel: (02) 961-0649, Fax: (02) 959-0649, seyoung@khu.ac.kr

Received 1 October 2011 Revised 24 October 2011 Accepted 2 December 2011

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of food security measures, which was developed based on the US household food security survey module (US HFSSM) with content validity in the Korean population. The reliability and validity were assessed by internal consistency, construct validity and criterion-related validity. The study included 446 households. Among those, 46.2% were households with children. The proportion of food insecure households was 33.3%. Among those, 35.4% and 64.6% households were food insecure with hunger and without hunger, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.84 and the infit value by the Rasch model analysis ranged from 0.68 to 1.43. The scale item response curves by food insecurity severity explained well the nature and characteristics of food security, indicating the highest proportion of "yes" for the items on diet quality, followed by those with diet quantity. The result of criterion-related validity showed that food insecurity status was significantly related in a dose-response manner with the household income level, food expenditure, subjective health state, subjects' educational level. Household food security status was also related to dietary diversity regarding protein foods, fruits and fruit juice, and milk and dairy product. These findings suggest that the food security instrument is reliable and valid and would be used to assess food security status in the Korean population.

Keywords: food security, validity, reliability, measurement, KNHANES

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Assessment of food security questionnaire severity according to household income

1='Worried food would run out before we got money to buy more.', 2='Food bought didn't last and we didn't have money to get more.', 3='Couldn't afford to eat balanced meals.', 4='Adult cut size of meals or skipped meals.', 5='Respondent ate less than felt he/she should.', 6='Respondent hungry but didn't eat because couldn't afford.', 7='Respondent lost weight.', 8='Adult did not eat for whole day.', 9='Relied on few kinds of low-cost food to feed children.', 10='Couldn't feed children balanced meals.', 11='Children were not eating enough.', 12='Cut size of children's meals.', 13='Children skipped meals.', 14='Children were hungry but didn't eat because couldn't afford.', 15='Children did not eat for whole day.', Questions of 4-1, 8-1, and 13-1 indicate 'how often.'

Table 1

General characteristics of household

Values are N (%)

Table 2

Household food security status

Table 3

Sensitivity and specificity of food insufficiency questionnaire with food security status by the developed questionnaire

Values are N (%)

Table 4

Meeting degree coefficient after elimination of questions

Table 5

Infit mean square using Rasch model

Table 6

Relations of household food security status with socioeconomic status and level of subjective health state

Values are Mean ± SE

a, b: Means with different superscript letters are significantly different from each other at p < 0.05 by Tukey's test

1) General linear model test

Table 7

Relations of household food security status with variety score of diet

Values are Mean ± SE

a, b: Means with different superscript letters are significantly different from each other at p < 0.05 by Tukey's test

1) Rices, noodles, rice cakes for soups and breads

2) Cereals(corn flake), potatoes, Muk(Korean jellied food), Korean glass noodles, nuts, and rice cakes

3) General linear model test

Notes

This research was supported by grants from the Korean Center of Disease and Control(Project No. 2010E0075600, Principal investigator, Se-Young Oh).

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