Risk factors associated with the presence and severity of food insecurity in rural Honduras.

OBJECTIVE

To identify factors associated with the presence and severity of food insecurity among a sample of Honduran caregivers of young children.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study in which the dependent variable, household food insecurity, was measured using a fourteen-item questionnaire developed and validated in a population of similar cultural context. A predictive modelling strategy used backwards elimination in logistic regression and multinomial logit regression models to compute odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for food insecurity.

SETTING

Rural Honduras in the department of Intibucá, between March and April 2009.

SUBJECTS

Two-hundred and ninety-eight Honduran caregivers of children aged 6-18 months.

RESULTS

Ninety-three per cent of households were classified as having some degree of food insecurity (mild, moderate or severe). After controlling for caregiver age and marital status, compared with caregivers with more than primary-school education, those with less than primary-school education had 3·47 (95% CI 1·34, 8·99) times the odds of severe food insecurity and 2·29 (95% CI 1·00, 5·25) times the odds of moderate food insecurity. Our results also found that child anthropometric status was not associated with the presence or severity of food insecurity.

CONCLUSIONS

These results show that among the sociodemographic factors assessed, food insecurity in rural Honduras is associated with maternal education. Understanding key factors associated with food insecurity that are unique to Honduras can inform the design of interventions to effectively mitigate the negative impact of food insecurity on children.