Description

The 6-item short form of the Household Food Security Scale is an abbreviated measure designed to assess household food insecurity when time or resource limitations prevent use of the full 18-item scale. This short form retains core indicators that reflect increasing severity of food insecurity, such as food not lasting, inability to afford balanced meals, eating less than felt necessary, and experiences of hunger. The items were selected based on their ability to distinguish food-secure from food-insecure households and to capture two levels of insecurity: without hunger and with hunger. The questions ask respondents to report on food-related hardships over the past 12 months, using structured response options (e.g., often, sometimes, never). Scoring is based on the number of affirmative responses: two or more indicates food insecurity, and five or more indicates food insecurity with hunger. This tool preserves much of the full scale’s classification power, achieving high concordance rates in national survey data while reducing respondent burden.

AI/AN Communities where the measure has been used

Southwest communities

Demographics of AI/AN participants where the scale has been used

Adult caregivers and school employees

Notes on adaptations or modifications

  1. Addition of one item “The fresh fruits and vegetables in my neighborhood are of high quality” with 5 point response scale ranging from completely agree to strongly disagree with a “don’t know” option)

Modality and administration

Self-report; this measure was administered using paper and pencil, or REDCap mobile app, or an online REDCap link sent to the participant.

Scoring

Total the number of affirmative responses [Often and sometimes are considered affirmative responses to questions 1 and 2; almost every and some months are considered affirmative responses to Question 4]. Two or more affirmatives indicates food insecurity; 5 or more affirmatives indicates hunger. Alternatively, for households with some item non-responses, classifications can be obtained by anchoring the relative severity of each item to its original estimated calibration level, calculating a scale value for the household, and comparing this value to the predefined ranges set when the full scale was validated.

Psychometric evidence

Not found within document.

Citation(s)

Blumberg, S. J., Bialostosky, K., Hamilton, W. L., & Briefel, R. R. The effectiveness of a short form of the Household Food Security Scale. American Journal of Public Health, 89(8), 1231–1234, 1999.. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.89.8.1231