Validation of the Radimer/Cornell food insecurity measure in rural Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

摘要

The objective of the present study was to assess the construct validity, criterion-related validity and internal consistency of the Radimer/Cornell food insecurity measure for use in rural Tanzania. A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted from March to May 2005. Key adaptations to the 9-item Radimer/Cornell items included translation to Swahili, replacing the term balanced diet with 'full meal' and constructing the items as questions rather than statements. Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to assess validity and reliability, respectively.The setting was Rural Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Analysis was restricted to data from 530 women aged 15-44 yrs who had children under 5 yrs old. Principal component factor analysis revealed a 2-factor solution: altered eating pattern at household level and altered eating pattern at child level. The 2 factors accounted for 66.2% of the total variance. The subscales developed had good reliability. Internal consistency of the scales was 0.853 and 0.784 for food insecurity at household level and food insecurity at child level, respectively. Only 14.0% of the women reported being food-secure and 86.0% reported some kind of food insecurity. The Radimer/Cornell food insecurity measure showed significant associations with selected sociodemographic factors in the expected directions. There was also an association with the NHANES III (Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) and CCHIP (Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project) indicators. The findings suggest that the adapted Radimer/Cornell measure may have some utility in assessing food insecurity in settings like rural Tanzania.