Abstract

GREGORIO, Maria João et al. Methodological Proposal to Assess Household Food Insecurity in Portugal. Nutrícias [online]. 2014, n.21, pp.4-11. ISSN 2182-7230.

In modern societies, social inequalities have being considered as one of the main current challenges, with largely impacts on populations’ health. Indeed, food insecurity as a situation that exist when there are difficult in the access to healthy foods due to economic constraints, seems to be a risk factor for non-communicable diseases. In that sense, the monitoring of populations’ Food Security becomes one priority strategy in the food and nutrition policies scope. This work aims to present a methodological proposal for the evaluation of Food Security situation in the Portuguese population. The multidimensional character of this concept implies several challenges when we intend to assess this condition in households. In Portugal, as in other European countries, few studies have been conducted in this field, and there is any validated tool to assess this condition in the Portuguese population. However, since 2011, the Directorate-General of Health, have been looking to monitor and evaluate Food Security in the Portuguese population. This monitoring system - INFOFAMÍLIA - have been replicated annually in a sample of Portuguese population, at nationwide, and use a psychometric household food insecurity scale, adapted from the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale, and originally developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. We believe that this tool have a high cost-benefit, enabling the Food Security diagnosis, at national and local level, allowing at the same time, evaluate time trends and identify its main determinants and groups at-risk of food insecurity.

Keywords : Food Insecurity; Portugal; Psychometric scales.

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