Author, Subjects, Keywords

Cited Author

 
 
   » By Author or Editor
 » Browse Author by Alphabet
 » By Journal
 » By Subjects
 » Malaysian Journals
 » By Type
 » By Year
 » By Latest Additions
 
 
   » By Author
 » Top 20 Authors
 » Top 20 Article
 » Top Journal Cited
 » Top Article Cited
 » Journal Citation Statistics
 » Usage Since Sept 2007


 
 
 

Login | Create Account

Assessment of Food Insecurity Among Low Income Households in Kuala Lumpur Using the Radimer/Cornell Food Insecurity Instrument – A Validation Study

Zalilah Mohd. Sharif , and Ang, Merlin, (2001) Assessment of Food Insecurity Among Low Income Households in Kuala Lumpur Using the Radimer/Cornell Food Insecurity Instrument – A Validation Study. Malaysian Journal of Nutrition, 7 (1 & 2). pp. 15-32. ISSN 1394-035X

[img]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
184Kb

Official URL: http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn007/mjn7n12_art2.pdf

Affiliations

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dept. of Food and Nutritional Sciences

Abstract

Food insecurity exists whenever people are not able to access sufficient food at all times for an active and healthy life. This study used the Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity instrument to assess food insecurity and to determine the risk factors and consequences of food insecurity among low-income households in Kuala Lumpur. One hundred and thirty-seven Malay pre-school children (4-6 years old) from Taman Sang Kancil were measured for their weights and heights. Questionnaires were used to collect food security and socioeconomic information on the households. The findings indicated that 34.3% of the households were food secure, while 65.7% experienced some kind of food insecurity, (27.7% households were food insecure, 10.9% individuals were food insecure and 27.0% fell into the child hunger category). The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting were 44.5%, 36.5% and 30.7% respectively. The prevalence of high weight-for-height (overweight) was 13.1%. Based on multinomial logistic regression, larger household size (OR=1.418; p<0.01) and lower educational level of mothers (OR=0.749; p<0.01) and fathers (OR=0.802; p<0.05) were found to be significant risk factors for food insecurity. The study, however, did not find any significant difference in children’s nutritional status according to household food security levels. It is recommended that for the Malaysian population, the Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity instrument should be modified and further validated with various ethnic groups in a variety of settings. The validation should include the appropriateness of the statements to the target grounds and their different risk factors and outcomes of food insecurity.

Item Type:Journal
Keywords:Food Insecurity, Low Income Households, Poverty, Child Hunger
Subjects:R Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing
ID Code:2681

1. Baer RD & Madrigal L (1993). Intrahousehold allocation of resources in larger and smaller Mexican households. Social Science and Medicine 36 (3) : 305-310.

2. Blumberg RL (1988). Income under female versus male control: hypotheses from a theory of gender stratifications and data from the Third World. Journal of Family Issues 9 (1) : 51 - 84.

3. Campbell CC (1991). Food insecurity: a nutritional outcome or a predictor variable? Journal of Nutrition 121 : 408 - 415.

4. Chee, H.L. (1992). Prevalence of malnutrition among children in an urban squatter settlement in Petaling Jaya. Medical Journal of Malaysia 47 (3): 170 - 181.

5. Chee, H.L., Khor, G.L. & Tee, E.S. (1997). Nutritional assessment of rural villages and estates in Peninsular Malaysia : I. Socio-economic profile of households. Mal J Nutr 3 (1) : 1-19.

6. Cochrane SH, Leslie J & O’Hara DJ (1982). Parental education and child health: intracountry evidence. Health Policy and Education 2 : 213 - 250.

7. Emmons L (1986). Food procurement and the nutritional adequacy of diets in low-income families. Journal of American Dietetic Association 86 (12) : 1684 - 1693.

8. Gan, C., Chin, B., Teoh, S. & Chan, K.C.M. (1993). Nutritional status of Kadazan children in a rural district in Sabah, Malaysia. Southeast Asean Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 24 (2) : 293 - 301.

9. Gittelson J, Mookherji S & Pelto G (1998). Operationalizing household food security in rural Nepal. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 19 (3) : 210 - 222.

10. Haddad L, Ruel MT & Garrett JI (1999). Are urban poverty and undernutrition growing? Some newly assembled evidence. World Development 27 (11) 1891 - 1904.

11. Johnson CF & Rogers BL (1993). Children’s nutritional status in female-headed households in the Dominican Republic. Social Science Medicine 37 (11) : 1293 - 1301.

12. Kahn HA & Sempos CT (1989). Statistical Methods in Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press.

13. Kendall A, Olson CM & Frongillo EA (1995). Validation of the Radimer/Cornell measures of hunger and food insecurity. Journal of Nutrition 125 : 2793 - 2801.

14. Kendall A, Olson CM & Frongillo EA (1996). Relationship of hunger and food insecurity to food availability and consumption. Journal of American Dietetic Association 96: 1019 - 1024.

15. Kennedy E & Peters P (1992). Household food security and child nutrition: The interaction of income and gender of household head. World Development 20 (8) : 1077 - 1085.

16. Khairuddin Yusof (1982). Sang Kancil - Care for urban squatters in Malaysia. World Health Forum 3(3) : 278 - 281.

17. Khor, G.L. & Tee, E.S. (1997). Nutritional assessment of rural villages and estates in Peninsular Malaysia : II. Nutritional status of children aged 18 years and below. Mal J Nutr 3 (1) : 21 -47.

18. Kiyu A, Teo B, Hardin S & Ong F (1991). Nutritional status of children in rural Sarawak, Malaysia. Southeast Asean Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 22 (2) : 211- 215.

19. Life Sciences Research Office (1990). Core indicators of nutritional status for difficult-to-sample population. Journal of Nutrition 120 (Suppl) : 1559 - 1600.

20. Lino M (1996). Income and spending of poor households with children. Family Economics and Nutrition Review 9 (1) : 2-13.

21. Malaysia (1996). Seventh Malaysia Plan. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan National Malaysia Berhad.

22. Malaysian Department of Statistics (1995). Report on the household expenditure survey 1993/94. Kuala Lumpur: Department of Statistics.

23. Malaysian Department of Statistics (1997). Year Book of Statistics. Kuala Lumpur : Department of Statistics.

24. Maxwell D, Levin C & Csete J (1998). Does urban agriculture help prevent malnutrition? Evidence from Kampala. Food Policy 23 (5) : 411- 424.

25. Zalilah Mohd Shariff. (1998). Growth status determinants of school age children from primarily low income households in the urban area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: A focus on intrahousehold factors. PH.D Dissertation, Michigan State University.

26. Myntti C (1993). Social determinants of child health in Yemen. Social Science Medicine 37 (2) : 233 - 240.

27. Norimah A.K. & Lau, K.K. (2000). Nutritional Status among Chinese preschoolers in Subang Jaya, Selangor. Mal J Nutr 6 (1) : 45 - 53.

28. Olson CM, Rauschenbach BS, Frongillo EA & Kendall A (1997). Factors contributing to household food insecurity in a rural upstate New York county. Family Economics and Nutrition Review 1 (2) : 2 - 17.

29. Poh SC (1990). Nutritional status of Indian preschool children in the rubber plantation sector in Malaysia. The Indian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetic 27 : 144 - 152.

30. Quisumbing AR, Brown CR, Feldstein HS, Haddad L & Penn C (1996). Women : the key to food security. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 17 (1) : 79-81.

31. Radimer KL, Olson CM & Campbell CC (1990). Development of indicators to assess hunger. Journal of Nutrition 120 : 1544 - 1548.

32. Radimer KL, Olson CM, Greene JC, Campbell CC & Habicht J (1992). Understanding hunger and developing indicators to assess it in women and children. Journal of Nutrition Education 24 (1) : 36S - 44S.

33. Rose D (1999). Economic determinants and dietary consequences of food insecurity in the United States. Journal of Nutrition 129 : 517S-520S.

34. Sen AK (1981). Poverty and Famine: an Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

35. Soon, S.D. & Khor, G.L. (1995). Taraf pemakanan kanak-kanak berumur satu hingga enam tahun di FELDA Sg. Koyan, Pahang. Mal J Nutr 1 : 115 - 128.

36. Tweeten L, Mellor J, Reutlinger S & Pines J (1992). Food Security. Food Security Discussion Paper (PN-ABK-883) for U.S. Agency for International Development.

37. WHO (1983). Measuring change in nutritional status. Geneva:World Health Organization.

38. Zamaliah M.M., Mohd Nasir M.T., Khor, G.L. & Tee, E.S. (1998). Socio-economic determinants of nutritional status of children in rural Peninsular Malaysia. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 7 (314) : 307 - 310.

Repository Staff Only: item control page
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Copyright 2007 MyAIS Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya – All Rights Reserved. Malaysian Abstracting and Indexing System is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.