Opsomer Jean D, Jensen Helen H, Pan Suwen
Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
J Nutr. 2003 Feb;133(2):421-7. doi: 10.1093/jn/133.2.421.
Over the last decade, new information has been developed and collected to measure the extent of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. Common measurement of the phenomenon of hunger and food insecurity has become possible through efforts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a set of survey questions that can be used to obtain estimates of the prevalence and severity of food insecurity. We evaluated the measurement of food insecurity and the effect of household variables on measured food insecurity. The effects of demographic and survey-specific variables on the food insecurity/hunger scale were evaluated using a generalized linear model with mixed effects. Data came from the 1995, 1997 and 1999 Food Security Module of the Current Population Survey. The results generally validated the model currently used by the USDA. In addition, our approach made it possible to consider the effect of demographics and several survey design variables on food security among measurably food-insecure households, as well as interactions between these factors and the food security questions. The analysis of the expanded model with the 1995 data found results similar to those reported based on the Rasch model used by the USDA. Even though the sample size was reduced and a number of screening and questionnaire changes were introduced in 1997 and 1999, the results for those years appear mostly unchanged and confirm the robustness of the scale in measuring food insecurity. There is some evidence that interpretation of questions may vary among different demographic groups.
在过去十年中，已开发并收集了新的信息，以衡量美国粮食不安全和饥饿的程度。通过美国农业部（USDA）努力制定一套可用于获取粮食不安全发生率和严重程度估计值的调查问题，对饥饿和粮食不安全现象进行常规测量已成为可能。我们评估了粮食不安全的测量方法以及家庭变量对所测量的粮食不安全的影响。使用具有混合效应的广义线性模型评估了人口统计学和特定调查变量对粮食不安全/饥饿量表的影响。数据来自1995年、1997年和1999年的当前人口调查粮食安全模块。结果总体上验证了美国农业部目前使用的模型。此外，我们的方法使得能够考虑人口统计学和几个调查设计变量对可测量的粮食不安全家庭的粮食安全的影响，以及这些因素与粮食安全问题之间的相互作用。对1995年数据的扩展模型分析发现结果与基于美国农业部使用的拉施模型报告的结果相似。尽管样本量减少，并且在1997年和1999年引入了一些筛选和问卷变化，但那些年份的结果大多未变，并证实了该量表在测量粮食不安全方面的稳健性。有一些证据表明，不同人口群体对问题的解释可能有所不同。
