Measures Registry

U.S. Household Food Security Scale

Description

The U.S. Household Food Security Scale is intended to assess food security, food insecurity, and hunger among families. Nutritional security is evaluated in stages, which include a child screening and a separate adult screening, together comprising the entire household. The scale has been slightly modified since its original publication in 1995.

Purpose

The U.S. Household Food Security Scale is a method to rapidly assess food security among households, including households with children.

Population

Families

Year of Publication

2000

Reference

Source Article: Bickel, G., Nord, M., Price, C., Hamilton, W., Cook, J. (2000). Guide to measuring household food security. United States Department of Agriculture. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/FSGuide.pdf

Analytics Article: United States Department of Agriculture. (2012). U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module:
Three-Stage Design, with Screeners. United States Department of Agriculture.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/DataFiles/50764/26621_hh2012.pdf?v=3672.4

Number of Items

Scale Types (Likert=Likert Type; MC=Multiple Choice; T/F=True/False; OR=Open Response)

Likert Type

Likert: Responses change depending on the item

Subscales

Household Stage 1 Adult Stage 2 Adult Stage 3 Child Stage 1 Child Stage 2 Optional USDA Food Sufficiency Question/Screener

Scoring

Individual item answers are scored as affirmative (1) or negative (0), with specific rules for which answers are affirmative and which answers are negative for each item. Total affirmative answers are summed, with a score of 0 indicating high food security, a score of 1-2 indicating marginal food security, a score of 3-7 (in households with children) or 3-5 (in households with no children) indicating low food security, and a score of 8-18 (in households with children) or 6-10 (in households with no children) indicating very low food security. Additional scoring information can be found in the "Coding Responses and Assessing Household Food Security Status" section of the Analytics article.

Administration

Self-Administered

Readability/ Literacy Level

N/A

Languages

English

Reliability

N/A

Validity

N/A

Limitations

N/A

Availability

Publicly Available

Cost

Free

Other Considerations

N/A