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Food insecurity is prevalent in rural communities of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua
Author(s) -
Bermudez Odilia I.,
Fulladolsa Patricia Palma,
Deman Hedi,
MelgarQuis Hugo
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.104.7
Subject(s) - rasch model , cronbach's alpha , food insecurity , latin americans , food security , environmental health , population , geography , scale (ratio) , demography , rural population , medicine , psychology , socioeconomics , psychometrics , cartography , clinical psychology , political science , sociology , developmental psychology , agriculture , archaeology , law
Although food insecurity affects groups in Central America, little is known about the magnitud and severity of this situation. Objectives To assess psychometric properties of the 15‐item Food Security (FS) Scale for Latin American (ELCSA) and estimate FS in rural households (HH) of El Salvador (Sal), Guatemala (Gua), Honduras (Hon) and Nicaragua (Nic) Methods We assesed reliability and tested a Rasch model of the ELCSA and evaluated levels of FS in 502 families (Sal=180, Gua=120, Hon=64; Nic=138). Results Cronbach's alpha was 0.90 with inter item correlation of 0 0.37, range=0.09–0.74. From Rasch analysis, we found that the less severe item was question1 about worrying for not having enough food (Measure = −4.6). and the most severe (6.5) was the item on children not eating in a day. Excluding question1, the INFIT values ranged from 0.8 to 1.2. Very low FS was highly prevalent in the studied HH: Nic=50%, Hon=31%, Gua=18% and Sal=14%. Conclusions The ELCSA was valid and reliable for measuring FS in Central America. The levels of very low FS were highly prevalent, therefore additional efforts are needed to protect those vulnerable population groups.