Work

Is there More to Food Insecurity among Children than Poverty? The Importance of Measurement

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines the association between poverty and food insecurity among children using the official measure of poverty and the newsupplemental poverty measure of the Census Bureau based on a more inclusive definition of family resources and needs. Our objective is to study whether the association between food insecurity and poverty improves with a more comprehensive measure of income and needs. We find a strong and statistically significant association between income-to-needs ratio based on the official poverty metric and food insecurity among children—particularly very low food security among children. A more inclusive measure of income-to-needs-ratio, based on the supplemental poverty measurestrengthens the association. These findings remain robust in models using longitudinal data with person fixed effects.

Source: UKnowledge (University of Kentucky)

Authors: Neeraj Kaushal, Jane Waldfogel, Irwin Garfinkel

Institution: University of Kentucky

Language: English

Topic: Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: No poverty, Reduced inequalities, Zero hunger, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green