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Topical Area: Community and Public Health Nutrition

Community and Public Health Nutrition (Poster Session)

(P24-043-23) Exploring Measures for Nutrition Security: The Relationship of Responses to Questions of the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module With Dietary Quality

Monday, July 24, 2023
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 454
Disclosure(s):
Heather A. Eicher-Miller, PhD, MS: Center for Responsible Nutrition: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated)
Danone Institutes International: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Egg Nutrition Center: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Eli Lilly and Co.: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
French Medical Research Foundation: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
National Dairy Council: Advisory Committee/Board Member (Ongoing)
Purdue University: Employee (Ongoing)
Robert Mccormick Foundation: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Robert Woodruff Foundation: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Regan L. Bailey, PhD, MPH, RD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Food security defines consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life and is quantified using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM). Nutrition security is an emerging concept, referring to consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable foods that are necessary for optimal health and well-being. Nutrition security still has no clearly developed measure, yet is closely related to food security and dietary quality; therefore, the objective was to determine the suitability of specific individual questions of the U.S. HFSSM to measure nutrition security, by describing their associations with dietary quality using the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015).

Methods: Low-income women (n=174) eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from Indiana completed the U.S. HFSSM with a reference period of 12 months and 30 days and dietary assessments (24-hour dietary recalls), which were used to determine total and component HEI-2015 scores. T-tests compared HEI by the yes/no responses to each U.S. HFSSM question for both reference periods in this cross-sectional analysis. Individual food security questions (p < 0.2) from t-test results were further evaluated in a stepwise regression model of total HEI-2015 scores.

Results: Mean total HEI scores varied by four of the U.S. HFSSM questions with a 12-month reference period and 3 questions with a 30-day reference period. Two U.S. HFSSM questions with a 12-month reference period were retained where indication of food insecurity (yes) equated to 3 or 4 point lower total HEI score (p≤0.1).

Conclusions: This study provides evidence that dietary quality differs by food security questions from the U.S. HFSSM  and should be further evaluated as measures of nutrition security.

Funding Sources: This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.