Description

FSSKIPMOCAT indicates how many days out of the last 30, if any, that an adult in the household cut the size of a meal or skipped a meal because there wasn't enough money for food. This question is asked of households in which adults cut the size of meals or skipped meals in the past 12 months (FSSKIPYR).

Prior to 2019, FSSKIPMOCAT responses ranged from 0-30 days. In 2019, a categorical system was introduced to reduce the risk of disclosing respondent identities. FSSKIPMOCAT recodes responses in samples from before 2019 to use the 2019 categorical responses. The original continuous responses for those samples are available in FSSKIPMO.

The questions used to construct this variable are two of the 18 items included in 30-day household food security scale, FSSTATUSM. Households are screened into Food Sufficiency and Food Security section of the supplement based on income and preliminary questions on food access (see FSSCREEN for more information).

Comparability

This variable is generally comparable over available years since 1995, and the universe is generally consistent since 1998. From 1998 onwards, both the preliminary screening questions and the internal screening questions that precede FSSKIPMO are consistent over time. Specifically, only households that in the past year did not have enough to eat (FSFOODS), worried about running out of food (FSWROUTY), ran out of food (FSBUYMR), or did not eat balanced meals (FSBAL) continue on to answer FSSKIPYR and FSSKIPMO.

Prior to 1998, both the internal screeners and the screening procedures used to determine which households were screened into the food security assessment varied. Researchers need account for this when including data prior to 1998.

The use of split panels to test experimental versions of the questions underlying FSSKIPMO reduce the sample sizes in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2008, and 2009.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables