Household food insecurity risk indices for English neighbourhoods: Measures to support local policy decisions
Household food insecurity risk indices for English neighbourhoods: Measures to support local policy decisions
Background: In England, the responsibility to address food insecurity lies with local government, yet the prevalence of this social inequality is unknown in small subnational areas. In 2018 an index of small-area household food insecurity risk was developed and utilised by public and third sector organisations to target interventions; this measure needed updating to better support decisions in different settings, such as urban and rural areas where pressures on food security differ.
Methods: We held interviews with stakeholders (n = 14) and completed a scoping review to identify appropriate variables to create an updated risk measure. We then sourced a range of open access secondary data to develop an indices of food insecurity risk in English neighbourhoods. Following a process of data transformation and normalisation, we tested combinations of variables and identified the most appropriate data to reflect household food insecurity risk in urban and rural areas.
Results: Eight variables, reflecting both household circumstances and local service availability, were separated into two domains with equal weighting for a new index, the Complex Index, and a subset of these to make up the Simple Index. Within the Complex Index, the Compositional Domain includes population characteristics while the Structural Domain reflects small area access to resources such as grocery stores. The Compositional Domain correlated well with free school meal eligibility (rs = 0.705) and prevalence of childhood obesity (rs = 0.641). This domain was the preferred measure for use in most areas when shared with stakeholders, and when assessed alongside other configurations of the variables. Areas of highest risk were most often located in the North of England.
Conclusion: We recommend the use of the Compositional Domain for all areas, with inclusion of the Structural Domain in rural areas where locational disadvantage makes it more difficult to access resources. These measures can aid local policy makers and planners when allocating resources and interventions to support households who may experience food insecurity
Smith, Dianna
e859097c-f9f5-4fd0-8b07-59218648e726
Rixson, Lauren
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Grove, Grace
aa73d66b-af26-4f94-afeb-04c89fe1debf
Ziauddeen, Nida
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Vassilev, Ivaylo
d76a5531-4ddc-4eb2-909b-a2a1068f05f3
Taheem, Ravita
d78c6ec2-9ff3-4f27-9ed3-9531daea2c83
Roderick, Paul
dbb3cd11-4c51-4844-982b-0eb30ad5085a
Alwan, Nisreen
0d37b320-f325-4ed3-ba51-0fe2866d5382
9 December 2022
Smith, Dianna
e859097c-f9f5-4fd0-8b07-59218648e726
Rixson, Lauren
62132421-6beb-45e4-b812-df9fcb78c522
Grove, Grace
aa73d66b-af26-4f94-afeb-04c89fe1debf
Ziauddeen, Nida
8b233a4a-9763-410b-90c7-df5c7d1a26e4
Vassilev, Ivaylo
d76a5531-4ddc-4eb2-909b-a2a1068f05f3
Taheem, Ravita
d78c6ec2-9ff3-4f27-9ed3-9531daea2c83
Roderick, Paul
dbb3cd11-4c51-4844-982b-0eb30ad5085a
Alwan, Nisreen
0d37b320-f325-4ed3-ba51-0fe2866d5382
Smith, Dianna, Rixson, Lauren, Grove, Grace, Ziauddeen, Nida, Vassilev, Ivaylo, Taheem, Ravita, Roderick, Paul and Alwan, Nisreen
(2022)
Household food insecurity risk indices for English neighbourhoods: Measures to support local policy decisions.
PLoS ONE, 17 (12 December), [e0267260].
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0267260).
Abstract
Background: In England, the responsibility to address food insecurity lies with local government, yet the prevalence of this social inequality is unknown in small subnational areas. In 2018 an index of small-area household food insecurity risk was developed and utilised by public and third sector organisations to target interventions; this measure needed updating to better support decisions in different settings, such as urban and rural areas where pressures on food security differ.
Methods: We held interviews with stakeholders (n = 14) and completed a scoping review to identify appropriate variables to create an updated risk measure. We then sourced a range of open access secondary data to develop an indices of food insecurity risk in English neighbourhoods. Following a process of data transformation and normalisation, we tested combinations of variables and identified the most appropriate data to reflect household food insecurity risk in urban and rural areas.
Results: Eight variables, reflecting both household circumstances and local service availability, were separated into two domains with equal weighting for a new index, the Complex Index, and a subset of these to make up the Simple Index. Within the Complex Index, the Compositional Domain includes population characteristics while the Structural Domain reflects small area access to resources such as grocery stores. The Compositional Domain correlated well with free school meal eligibility (rs = 0.705) and prevalence of childhood obesity (rs = 0.641). This domain was the preferred measure for use in most areas when shared with stakeholders, and when assessed alongside other configurations of the variables. Areas of highest risk were most often located in the North of England.
Conclusion: We recommend the use of the Compositional Domain for all areas, with inclusion of the Structural Domain in rural areas where locational disadvantage makes it more difficult to access resources. These measures can aid local policy makers and planners when allocating resources and interventions to support households who may experience food insecurity
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Accepted/In Press date: 25 November 2022
Published date: 9 December 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Research Applied Research Collaboration (NIHR ARC) Wessex for the project Wessex FRIEND, awarded to DMS and NAA. We would like to thank all participants in this study for their time and engagement with the interviews and further conversations. Thank you to Daniel Clarkson for assessment of the maps against food aid distributions. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Local EPrints ID: 472910
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/472910
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: 43c291bc-6d80-4892-ab6b-9170c879ba23
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Date deposited: 05 Jan 2023 18:11
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:07
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Author:
Lauren Rixson
Author:
Grace Grove
Author:
Nida Ziauddeen
Author:
Ravita Taheem
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