Refinement of the Brazilian household food insecurity measurement scale: Recommendation for a 14-item EBIA

Abstract

Objective: To review and refine Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale structure. Methods: The study analyzed the impact of removing the item "adult lost weight" and one of two possibly redundant items on Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale psychometric behavior using the one-parameter logistic (Rasch) model. Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale psychometric behavior was analyzed with respect to acceptable adjustment values ranging from 0.7 to 1.3, and to severity scores of the items with theoretically expected gradients. The socioeconomic and food security indicators came from the 2004 National Household Sample Survey, which obtained complete answers to Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale items from 112,665 households. Results: Removing the items "adult reduced amount.." followed by "adult ate less..." did not change the infit of the remaining items, except for "adult lost weight", whose infit increased from 1.21 to 1.56. The internal consistency and item severity scores did not change when "adult ate less" and one of the two redundant items were removed. Conclusion: Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale reanalysis reduced the number of scale items from 16 to 14 without changing its internal validity. Its use as a nationwide household food security measure is strongly recommended.