CFNY403 – Questionnaire PDF

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1 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL QUESTIONNAIRE

How Effective is the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire in Assessing Food Insecurity The Effectiveness of the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire Ryerson University CFNY403 Sunday February 9, 2020

2 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL QUESTIONNAIRE According to Food Forward (2018), food insecurity is defined as being in a state in which you do not have reliable access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. Food insecurity is a difficult problem to solve because there are so many different factors that can influence how an individual reaches the stage of being food insecure. Whether it be from socioeconomic status or unemployment, physical disabilities, lack of government policies, or even high food prices, it is extremely difficult to solve due to its complexity. Within the context of food insecurity at the household level, food-insecure households are defined as “moderate hunger, reduced food intake, repeated experience of physical sensation of hunger and who do not report reduced food intake for children” (Module 3, Hunger to Food Security Continuum). Due to the lack of information with regards to food insecurity at the household level, a direct method of assessment – such as a questionnaire, is often more commonly used when assessing food insecurity. Questionnaires are easy to use and provide a large sample size, resulting in a larger gathering of results (Abbasi et al., 2016). After using the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire to assess food insecurity within my own household, I came to the conclusion that the questionnaire is effective but would require some alterations to certain questions.

The questions asked in the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire are all centered on food and assessed the availability, level of consumption, and prevalence of food in the household. In my opinion the questionnaire succeeds in its initial goal to assess food insecurity as the questions are extremely clear and simple to understand, and the questionnaire varies between the availability of food, as well as any financial troubles that affect the amount of food in the household. The questionnaire is inclusive of everyone in a household, which in fact helps to determine whether or not that specific household is food insecure. Households can be categorized into a) individual

3 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL QUESTIONNAIRE (adult) food insecurity without hunger, b) individual (adult) hunger, and c) Child hunger each one showing the difference in severity of food insecurity increasingly within the household (Module 3, Identifying Those Who Are Not Food-Secure), which further demonstrates how much the questionnaire has taken into account. Not only is the questionnaire inclusive towards all members of the household, but it is also inclusive of different cultures as well. Different adaptations of the questionnaire have been used in other countries including Iran, and Tanzania (Zerafati et al., 2007, Leyna et al., 2008). Zerafati et al. (2007) has also reported that the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire had been adapted and applied to various other countries such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia to name a few, showing that the questionnaire is flexible enough to be used in different cultural settings.

The questions that I would modify or remove would be question eight, “I can't afford to eat properly”. I feel as if this question is too vague or too ambiguous to generate a sufficient answer, as individuals may question what it means to “eat properly”. The question could be modified to make it a little more specific, such as including the words fresh fruits and vegetables or other foods that would further define the word “proper” in this context. Similarly, I would slightly modify question eleven, “I cannot feed my child(ren) a balanced meal because I can't afford that”. Since balanced meal can also be questioned, I feel that making it more specific or simply defining what the question means by “balanced meal” would make it easier for the respondent to answer. The question that I would remove from the questionnaire would be question number twelve, “Sometimes people lose weight because they don't have enough to eat. In the past year, did you lose weight because there wasn't enough food? Yes. No.”. Since weight loss can be caused by a multitude of different factors, in hindsight it’s hard to determine whether

4 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL QUESTIONNAIRE or not respondents would know for sure if not having enough food would be the cause for weight loss. Although not having enough food could be one of many potential reasons why weight loss has occurred, other factors such as stress, overworking, or illness could overlap and therefore make it inaccurate to assess.

In conclusion, the Radimer/Cornell Questionnaire is effective for evaluating whether different households are food insecure. Although certain questions could be modified, and some even removed in order to further improve the effectiveness, the overall questionnaire is inclusive of everyone and different cultures, covers different dimensions of food insecurity, and was simple and easy to understand.

5 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RADIMER/CORNELL QUESTIONNAIRE References Abbasi N, Ghoochani OM, Ghanian M, et al. Assessment of households’ food insecurity through use of a USDA questionnaire. Adv Plants Agric Res. 2016;4(5):379-386. doi: 10.15406/apar.2016.04.00155 Food Forward. (2018, March 20). What is food insecurity? Food security? Retrieved from https://foodforward.org/2017/10/what-is-food-insecurity/ Leyna, Germana & Mmbaga, Elia & Mnyika, Kagoma & Klepp, Knut-Inge. (2008). Validation of the Radimer/Cornell Food Insecurity Measure in Rural Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Public health nutrition. 11. 684-9. 10.1017/S1368980007001267. Zerafati Shoae, N., Omidvar, N., Ghazi-Tabatabaie, M., Houshiar Rad, A., Fallah, H., & Mehrabi, Y. (2007). Is the adapted Radimer/Cornell questionnaire valid to measure food insecurity of urban households in Tehran, Iran? Public Health Nutrition. doi:10.1017/S1368980007441465...