Table 3 Summary of characterization of dietary intake, diversity and expenditure-based food security indicators
From: A systematic literature review of indicators measuring food security
Indicators | Description/method | Recall period | Level of analysis | Dimension covered | Components covered | Possible purpose | Validity and reliability | Data requirement and availability | Strengths and weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Food consumption score (FCS) (WFP [31]) | Composite indicator that considers dietary diversity, consumption frequency, and diet quality (nutritional values of various food groups) Given \(f\) as the number of days each food group was consumed within the last seven days, FCS is measured as: \(FCS=2{f}_{staple}+3{f}_{pulse}+1{f}_{vegetable}+1{f}_{fruit}+4{f}_{animal, fish}+4{f}_{dairy}+0.5{f}_{sugar}+0.5{f}_{oil}\) The total score (0–112) is used to classify households into one of the three groups based on the thresholds | 7 days | Household | Access | Quantity, Quality | - Estimate FI prevalence - Program monitoring, evaluation and targeting | Not valid and reliable [32] | Dietary records, Food Frequency Questionnaires Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey | Easy to apply and allows for rapid FS assessment. Yet, it does not account for amount/quantity of food consumed, micronutrient intakes and intra-household allocations, the cut-off points (thresholds) for classifying households into different classes are not valid; Prone to measurement error as it relies on respondent memory |
Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) (Swindale and Bilinsky [33]) | A qualitative measure by counting the number of food groups (of 12 groups) consumed by a household within the recall period: cereals; roots/tubers; vegetables; fruits; meat/poultry/offal; eggs; fish/seafood; pulses/legumes/nuts; milk/milk products; oil/fats; sugar/honey; and miscellaneous (others). The FAO version contains 16 food groups | 1 or 7Â days | Household | Access | Quantity, Quality | - Estimate FI prevalence - Program monitoring, evaluation | Not valid and reliable [32] | Dietary records, Food Frequency Questionnaires Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey | Simple and easy to understand It has not been validated as a proxy for adequacy of particular macronutrients or micronutrients (diet quality). There is no universally accepted cut-off for this indicator Prone to measurement error as it relies on respondent memory |
Women’s and individual dietary diversity scores [34] | A qualitative measure of individual’s access to a diverse of food items. It reflects dietary quality by accounting the adequacy of micronutrient of the diet) A simple count of food items consumed of the 16 food groups: cereals; vitamin A–rich vegetables and tubers; white roots and tubers; dark-green leafy vegetables; other vegetables; vitamin A–rich fruits; other fruits; organ meat; flesh meat; eggs; fish; legumes, nuts, and seeds; dairy; oils and fats; sweets; condiments) | 1 or 7 days | Individual | Access | Quantity, Quality | - Estimate FI prevalence at individual level - Program monitoring, evaluation and targeting | Validated for women aged 15–49 years old, and reliability not checked [10] | Dietary records, food frequency questionnaires | Provides insights into adequacy of macro- and micronutrients at individual level. Also, proven to be a good measure of household macronutrient adequacy and household nutrition insecurity. Prone to measurement error as it relies on respondent memory |
Measures a household’s calorie adequacy (the availability of calorie relative to the calorie requirement of the household by accounting for age and sex differences OR the amount of expenditure on food that is required to purchase the minimum caloric requirement -two categories: adequate calorie, food secure, and inadequate calorie food insecure | 1 year/1 week/1 month | Household | Access | Quantity | -Estimate FI prevalence - program monitoring, evaluation and targeting | Like POU, not a valid measure of FS, and low reliability | Dietary records, Food Frequency Questionnaires Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey | It provides insight into levels & trends of household level undernourishment. Yet, it does not account for dietary quality as energy deficiency is not a valid measure of FI; micronutrients are not considered; does not account for inequality in access to the available calories |