Description

FSBAL indicates whether or not the respondent(s) could not afford to eat balanced meals at any time in the last 12 months.

This question is one of the 18 items used to construct the 12-month household food security scale, FSSTATUS. Only households with incomes below 185% of poverty and higher income households that indicate food access problems in response to preliminary screening questions are asked FSBAL and other questions in this section of the supplement.

This variable is part of the Food Security Supplement.

Comparability

This variable codes are generally comparable over available years since 1995, and the universe is generally consistent since 1998. Prior to 1998, the screening procedures that determined which responding households were screened into the food security assessment changed each year. Researchers will need to use FSSCREEN to identify a consistent analytic sample when including data before 1998. In 2000 and 2007, households in certain months-in-sample were asked experimental versions of this question and are not included here.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables