Validation of a Scale to Assess Household Food Insecurity in One Rural and One Periurban Area of Ecuador, with a High Percentage of Migrants

ABSTRACT

Ecuador is the country that receives and integrates the largest amount of refugees and migrants of Latin America into its population and it has to have valid instruments for measuring and monitoring its food insecurity situation.

A food security scale was applied to a sample of households in one rural area (n = 36), and another peri-urban one (n = 153). The validation was made following FAO recommendations. On applying the Raschse model it was observed that the theoretical severity of the questions was reflected similarly in the experiences of the households. The infit statistics for each item are placed in acceptable values (0.7–1.3). The results of the validated scale indicate that the study population finds itself in a serious food insecurity situation.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• validity
• rasch model
• refugees
• Latin American

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the participants of the study.

Authorship

MPVE RMR and GMR contributed to concept development, conducted the analysis and interpreted the data. MPVE and GM was responsible for execution of the study and processing the data, and drafted the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript and have responsibility for the final content.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Standards Disclosure

Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.