Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Food Insecurity Individual Experience: A Comparison of Economic and Social Characteristics of the Most Vulnerable Groups in the World

  • Published:
Social Indicators Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Being at the core of sustainable growth, food insecurity is one of the most important issues in determining a country’s level of development. The first aim of this paper is to compare food insecurity in different subpopulations across countries. The second goal is to assess which factors affect individual food insecurity in the world, while taking into account the level of a country’s development. This has not been possible until very recently. Through the FAO Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) module of the Gallup World Poll, the same information has been collected with an identical methodology and instrument all over the world of more than 150 thousand individuals from 147 countries. Food insecurity presents marked differences depending on the level of development of the country under consideration. To take this into account, countries have been grouped together using a cluster analysis, based on the indicators from the UN Human Development Index. The model was estimated by means of an ordered logistic regression, both at the global level and for each group of countries. The model permits identification of the economic, social, and demographic characteristics related to food insecurity. Level of education, composition and number of children in the household, and location of dwellings had a significant impact on the risk of food insecurity. These results provide valuable insight into the phenomenon and can support policies aimed at ending hunger and improving the well-being of population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
€34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Germany)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: authors’ elaboration on FIES GWP data

Fig. 2

Source: our elaboration on UN HDI data

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  • Akimboade, O. A., & Adeyefa, S. A. (2018). An analysis of variance of food security by its main determinants among the urban poor in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 137(1), 61–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexandri, C. (2015). Population food security assessment: A methodological approach. Agricultural Economics and Rural Development—Realities and perspectives for Romania, Vol. 6, No. ISSN 2285–6803 ISSN-L 2285–6803 (20 November 2015) (pp. 2–8). MPRA Paper No. 69258.

  • Alkire, S. (2007). The missing dimensions of poverty data: Introduction to the special issue. Development Studies, 35(4), 347–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600810701701863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alkire, S. (2015). Capability approach and well-being measurement for public policy. In OPHI Oxford poverty & human development initiative. Working paper 94, Oxford University.

  • Alkire, S., & Fang Y. (2018). Dynamics of multidimensional poverty and uni-dimensional income poverty: An evidence of stability analysis from China. In Social Indicators Research. Springer: Berlin.

  • Allen, P. (2013). Facing food security. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 135–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, T., Prosperi, P., Cogill, B., Padilla, M., & Peri, I. (2018). A Delphi approach to develop sustainable food system metrics. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1865-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anand, S., & Sen, A. (1997). Concepts of human development and poverty: A multidimensional perspective. In Poverty and human development: Human development papers 1997 (pp. 1–20). New York: United Nations Development Programme.

  • Asenso-Okyere, K., Mekonnen, D., & Zerfu, E. (2013). Determinants of food security in selected agro-pastoral communities of Somali and Oromia regions. Ethiopia Journal of Food Science and Engineering, 3(2013), 453–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aurino, E. (2016). Do boys eat better than girls in India? Longitudinal evidence from young lives. Working paper 146 © Young Lives 2016 ISBN 978-1-9099403-60-4.

  • Ballard, T.J., Kepple, A.W., & Cafiero, C. (2013). The food insecurity experience scale: Development of a global standard for monitoring hunger worldwide Technical paper. Rome: FAO, Available at: http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-fs/voices/en/.

  • Ballard, T. J., Kepple, A. W., Cafiero, C., & Schmidhuber, J. (2014). Better measurement of food insecurity in the context of enhancing nutrition. Ernährungs Umschau Journal, 61(2), 38–41. https://doi.org/10.4455/eu.2014.007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, C. B. (2002). Food security and food assistance programs. Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 2, 2103–2190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, C. B. (2010). Measuring food insecurity. Science, 327(5967), 825–828.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartfeld, J., Dunifon, R., Nord M., & Carlson, S. (2006). What factors account for state-to-state differences in food security? Economic Information Bulletin, 20. November 2006.

  • Benassi, F., & Naccarato, A. (2016). Foreign citizens working in Italy: Does space matter? Spatial Demography. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40980-016-0023-7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benassi, F., & Naccarato, A. (2017). Households in potential economic distress. A geographically weighted regression model for Italy, 2001–2011. Spatial Statistics, August 2017 (Vol.21, pp. 362–376).

  • Brulè, G., & Maggino, F. (2017). Metrics of subjective well-being: Limits and improvements. happiness studies book series. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brunelli C., & Viviani, S. (2014). Exploring gender-based disparities with the FAO Food Insecurity Experience Scale. Global Forum on Gender Statistics. Aguascalientes, Mexico, November 3–5.

  • Burchi, F., & De Muro, P. (2016). From food availability to nutritional capabilities: Advancing food security analysis. Food Policy, 60, 10–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cafiero, C., Melgar-Quiñonez, H. R., Ballard, T. J., & Kepple, A. W. (2014). Validity and reliability of food security measures. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1331(1), 230–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carletto, C., Zezza, A., & Banerjee, R. (2013). Towards better measurement of household food security: Harmonizing indicators and the role of household surveys. Global Food Security, 2, 30–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J. (2013). Build it back better: Deconstructing food security for improved measurement and action. Global Food Security, 2, 188–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, J., Swindale, A., & Bilinsky, P. (2007). Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS) for measurement of food access: Indicator Guide. Version 3. Washington, D.C.: Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Programme (FANTA).

  • Coates, J., Webb, P., & Houser, R. (2003). Measuring food insecurity: Going beyond indicators of income and anthropometry. Washington, DC: Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project, Academy for Educational Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. J., & Garrett, J. L. (2010). The food price crisis and urban food (in)security. Environment & Urbanization, International Institute for Environment and Development, 22(2), 467–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247810380375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman-Jensen, A., Rabbitt, M.P., Gregory, C.A., & Singh A. (2016) Household Food Security in the United States in 2015, Economic Research Report 215, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, September 2016.

  • Deichtler, M., Ballard, T., Swindale, A., & Coates, J. (2011). Introducing a simple measure of household hunger for cross-cultural use: FANTA-2 food and nutrition technical assistance technical note no. 12, February. Washington, D.C.

  • DOA. (Department of Agriculture). (2002). The integrated food security strategy for South Africa. Department of Agriculture. Republic of South Africa, Pretoria.

  • FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP & WHO. (2017) The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2017. Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security. Rome, FAO.

  • Frongillo, E. A., Jr. (1999). Validation of measures of food insecurity and hunger. The Journal of Nutrition, 129(2), 506S–509S. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/129.2.506S.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, W. A. (2009). Sampling statistics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gallup. (2017). Worldwide research methodology and codebook. Gallup. https://data-services.hosting.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/World_Poll_Methodology_102717.pdf.

  • Gelman, A., & Hennig, C. (2017). Beyond subjective and objective in statistics 180. Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series A Statistics in Society, 180(4), 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grobler, W. C. J. (2016). Perceptions of poverty: A study of food secure and food insecure households in an urban area in South Africa. Procedia Economics and Finance, 35, 224–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadley, C., Lindstromb, D., Tessemac, F., & Belachewc, T. (2008). Gender bias in the food insecurity experience of Ethiopian adolescents. Social Science and Medicine, 66, 427–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. L., Cook, J., Thompson, W. W., Buron, L. F., Frongillo, E. A., Olson, C. M., & Wehler, C. A. (1997). Household food security in the United States in 1995. Summary Report of the Food Security Measurement Project. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture.

  • Haq (Ul), M. (1996). Reflections on human development, 1st edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Jones, A. D., Ngure, F. M., Pelto, G., & Young, S. L. (2013). What are we assessing when we measure food security? A compendium and review of current metrics. American Society for Nutrition. Advances in Nutrition., 4, 481–505. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.113.004119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, E. (2003). Qualitative measures of food insecurity and hunger. In Proceeding of FAO International Scientific Symposium (pp. 165–184), Rome, 26–28 June 2002.

  • Marden, J. Y. (2015). Multivariate statistics. Urbana-Champaign: Department of Statistics, University of Illinois.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, S. (1996). Food security: A post-modern perspective. Food Policy, 21(2), 155–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Misselhorn, A., Pramod, A., Ericksen, P., Gregory, P., Horn-Phathanothai, L., Ingram, J., et al. (2012). A vision for attaining food security. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4, 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2012.01.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nord, M., (2003), Measuring the food security of elderly persons. In Family Economics and Nutrition Review, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Vol. 15 N.1.

  • Nord, M. (2011). Intra-household differences in food security among adults in NHANES. Paper presented at the Third North American Congress on Epidemiology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 2010.

  • Nord, M. (2012). Assessing potential technical enhancements to the U.S. household food security measures, technical bulletin no. TB-1936, USDA, Economic Research Service. Available: www.ers.usda.gov/publications/tb-technical-bulletin/tb1936.aspx.

  • Nord, M. (2014). Introduction to item response theory applied to food security measurement: Basic concepts, parameters, and statistics. Technical Paper. Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nord, M., & Hopwood, H. (2008). A comparison of household food security in Canada and the United States. ERR-67. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. December 2008.

  • Posel, D., & Casale, D. (2011). Relative standing and subjective well-being in South Africa: The role of perceptions, expectations and income mobility. Social Indicators Research, 104(2), 195–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posel, D., & Rogan, M. (2016). Measured as poor versus feeling poor: Comparing money-metric and subjective poverty rates in South Africa. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 17(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2014.985198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rasch, G. (1960). Probabilistic Models for some intelligence and attainment tests. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for Educational Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravallion, M., & Lokshin, M. (2001). Identifying welfare effects from subjective questions. Economica., 68(271), 335–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1981). Poverty and famines: An essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. D., Kassa, W., & Winters, P. (2017a). Assessing food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean using FAO’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale. Food Policy, 71, 48–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. D., Rabbitt, M. P., & Coleman-Jensen, A. (2017b). Who are the world’s food insecure? New evidence from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale. World Development, 93, 402–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, J. E., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J. P. (2009). Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Paris.

  • Strickhouser S, Wright JD, Donley AM (2014) Food insecurity among older adults. ‎AARP foundation, Washington, D.C.

  • Terzi, S. (2013). How to integrate macro and micro perspectives: An example on human development and multidimensional poverty. Social Indicators Research, 114(3), 935–945.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tibesigwa B., & Visser, M. (2016). Small-holder farming, food security, and climate change in South Africa. Male-female and urban-rural differences environment for development. Discussion Paper Series February 2016 EfD DP 16-07.

  • UN General Assembly. (2015). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015 n. 70/1. Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York.

  • UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). (2015). Human development report. New York.

  • Vos, R. (2015). Thought for food: Strengthening global governance of food security. CDP Background Paper No. 29. ST/ESA/2015/CDP/29. Department of Economic & Social Affairs. New York.

  • Wooldridge, J. M. (2002). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2017). Monitoring global poverty: Report of the commission on global poverty. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0961-3.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istat, National Institute for Statistics, via Cesare Balbo 16, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Elena Grimaccia

  2. Department of Economics, Roma Tre University, Via Silvio D’Amico, 77, 00145, Rome, Italy

    Elena Grimaccia & Alessia Naccarato

Authors
  1. Elena Grimaccia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alessia Naccarato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elena Grimaccia.

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 FIES Questions

Now I would like to ask you some questions about your food consumption in the last 12 months. During the last 12 MONTHS, was there a time when:

  • Q1. You were worried you would run out of food because of a lack of money or other resources?

  • Q2. You were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food because of a lack of money or other resources?

  • Q3. You ate only a few kinds of foods because of a lack of money or other resources?

  • Q4. You had to skip a meal because there was not enough money or other resources to get food?

  • Q5. You ate less than you thought you should because of a lack of money or other resources?

  • Q6. Your household ran out of food because of a lack of money or other resources?

  • Q7. You were hungry but did not eat because there was not enough money or other resources for food?

  • Q8. You went without eating for a whole day because of a lack of money or other resources?

1.2 Full Model

Coefficients and standard errors for the determinants of FIES Fies score.

Fies score

Coef.

Robust standard error

z

p > |z|

[95% conf. interval]

Gender (ref. male)

Female

0.066086

0.013819

4.78

0.000

0.039001

0.09317

Age

0.042176

0.002307

18.28

0.000

0.037654

0.046698

Age2

− 0.00046

2.42E−05

− 19.02

0.000

− 0.00051

− 0.00041

Education

− 0.48208

0.011965

− 40.29

0.000

− 0.50553

− 0.45863

Poverty (ref. extreme poverty)

Not extr poverty

− 1.09407

0.019571

− 55.90

0.000

− 1.13243

− 1.05571

Number of children

0.087021

0.004597

18.93

0.000

0.078012

0.096031

Marital status (ref. single)

Married

− 0.26973

0.021164

− 12.74

0.000

− 0.31121

− 0.22825

Widow divorced separ

0.249512

0.028655

8.71

0.000

0.19335

0.305675

Other

0.404982

0.029575

13.69

0.000

0.347017

0.462948

Location (ref. farm, rural location)

Small_town

0.063482

0.016986

3.74

0.000

0.030189

0.096775

Large city

0.015209

0.019038

0.8

0.424

− 0.0221

0.052523

Suburb

0.242334

0.028409

8.53

0.000

0.186653

0.298015

Other_location

0.256065

0.098702

2.59

0.009

0.062612

0.449517

Cluster (ref. cluster 1)

2

0.00803

0.048576

0.17

0.869

− 0.08718

0.103237

3

0.570953

0.045518

12.54

0.000

0.48174

0.660166

4

0.899676

0.042917

20.96

0.000

0.815561

0.983792

5

1.675347

0.042975

38.98

0.000

1.591118

1.759576

/cut1

0.407968

0.066122

  

0.278371

0.537565

/cut2

0.809343

0.066151

  

0.679689

0.938997

/cut3

1.13359

0.066196

  

1.003848

1.263332

/cut4

1.503788

0.066311

  

1.373821

1.633755

/cut5

1.831219

0.066367

  

1.701142

1.961297

/cut6

2.157965

0.066457

  

2.027712

2.288219

/cut7

2.488106

0.066519

  

2.357732

2.61848

/cut8

3.088176

0.066777

  

2.957295

3.219057

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Grimaccia, E., Naccarato, A. Food Insecurity Individual Experience: A Comparison of Economic and Social Characteristics of the Most Vulnerable Groups in the World. Soc Indic Res 143, 391–410 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1975-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1975-3

Keywords

JEL Classification