Nutritional and Health Outcomes of Household Food Insecurity (HFIS)

Abstract

Poverty, food security and malnutrition are major concerns among international health, development and economic organizations. Attention has been focused on means of eliminating food insecurity and hunger world-wide. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of concern. (FAO, 2009).

The complex nature of food security indicates that in order to achieve a food secure status in a population, a range of aspects need to be assessed. Some examples on these encircle equitable sharing among household members; sufficient household production dedicated towards subsistence; use of soil, water and biodiversity conservation techniques; and the sanitary aspects of cooking. (Bhattacharya et al., 2004). Because of conceptuality, the food insecurity is a multidimensional array of behaviors and perceptions and its potential determinants and consequences are wide-ranging and multidimensional. As a result, the emerging direct qualitative measures of food security offer large potential for use at the international, national and sub-national levels. Furthermore, the increased attention has led to the realization that newer methods for monitoring the prevalence and severity of hunger and food insecurity are needed and that such methods need to be developed in a manner that reflects the perception of food security and hunger by those affected, e.g. the poor (Kennedy, 2002b). Definitions, Measurements, Socio-Demographic and Economic Aspects of Household Food Insecurity (HFIS) had been extensively explained in previous work (Hamad & Ashraf, 2016). In this review, the work focused on the Nutritional and Health Outcomes of Household Food Insecurity (HFIS)