In Longitudinal Data From the Survey of Program Dynamics, 16.9% of the U.S. Population Was Exposed to Household Food Insecurity in a 5-Year Period

Abstract

This study provides US national-level estimates of exposure to and persistence of food insecurity in a period of 5 consecutive years. Based on longitudinal data from the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD) (n = 12,185), 16.9% of the US population was exposed to household food insecurity in at least 1 year and 1.04% experienced persistent insecurity for 5 years from 1998 to 2002. Assuming that transition probabilities are stable, a Markov model allows further estimates for a longer period. From this approach, 25.9% of the US population was exposed to household food insecurity in a 10-year period. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the Publisher's online edition of Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition to view the free supplemental file.

Keywords:

• household food security
• food insecurity
• dynamics
• longitudinal data

Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by USDA's Economic Research Service through a cooperative agreement. The authors are grateful to Natalie Valpiani for excellent research assistance. The views expressed here belong to the authors and may not be attributed to the Economic Research Service or USDA.

The views expressed here belong to the authors and may not be attributed to the Economic Research Service or USDA.