Webb Patrick, Coates Jennifer, Frongillo Edward A, Rogers Beatrice Lorge, Swindale Anne, Bilinsky Paula
Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
J Nutr. 2006 May;136(5):1404S-1408S. doi: 10.1093/jn/136.5.1404S.
Food insecurity is a daily reality for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Although its most extreme manifestations are often obvious, many other households facing constraints in their access to food are less identifiable. Operational agencies lack a method for differentiating households at varying degrees of food insecurity in order to target and evaluate their interventions. This chapter provides an overview of a set of papers associated with a research initiative that seeks to identify more precise, yet simple, measures of household food insecurity. The overview highlights three main conceptual developments associated with practical approaches to measuring constraints in access to food: 1) a shift from using measures of food availability and utilization to measuring "inadequate access"; 2) a shift from a focus on objective to subjective measures; and 3) a growing emphasis on fundamental measurement as opposed to reliance on distal, proxy measures. Further research is needed regarding 1) how well measures of household food insecurity designed for chronically food-insecure contexts capture the processes leading to, and experience of, acute food insecurity, 2) the impact of short-term shocks, such as major floods or earthquake, on household behaviors that determine responses to food security questions, 3) better measurement of the interaction between severity and frequency of household food insecurity behaviors, and 4) the determination of whether an individual's response to survey questions can be representative of the food insecurity experiences of all members of the household.
粮食不安全是全球数亿人的日常现实。尽管其最极端的表现往往很明显，但许多其他在获取食物方面面临限制的家庭却不太容易被识别出来。业务机构缺乏一种方法来区分处于不同程度粮食不安全状况的家庭，以便针对并评估其干预措施。本章概述了一系列与一项研究计划相关的论文，该研究计划旨在确定更精确但又简单的家庭粮食不安全衡量标准。概述突出了与衡量获取食物限制的实际方法相关的三个主要概念发展：1）从使用食物供应和利用的衡量标准转向衡量“获取不足”；2）从关注客观指标转向主观指标；3）越来越强调基本衡量标准，而不是依赖间接的替代指标。关于以下方面还需要进一步研究：1）为长期粮食不安全环境设计的家庭粮食不安全衡量标准在多大程度上能够捕捉导致急性粮食不安全的过程及其经历；2）短期冲击，如重大洪水或地震，对决定对粮食安全问题反应的家庭行为的影响；3）更好地衡量家庭粮食不安全行为的严重程度和频率之间的相互作用；4）确定个人对调查问题的回答是否能够代表家庭所有成员的粮食不安全经历。
