Description

FSDAYF indicates how often, if at all, adults in the supplement household did not eat for a full day because there was no food and no money to buy more food. From 1998 onwards, this item is available only for those households that had previously indicated significant food access problems in the past year, such as cutting the size of meals or going hungry.

The two questions used to construct FSDAYF are two of the 18 items included in 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 included in the Food Sufficiency and Food Security section of the supplement. Within this section, there are two internal screeners; and FSDAYF is subject to the second of these screeners.

Comparability

This variable is generally comparable over available years since 1996, and the universe is generally consistent since 1998. From 1998 onwards, only households that in the past year cut the size of meals or skipped meals (FSSKIPYR), ate less than they thought they should (FSLESSYR), lost weight because they couldn't afford to buy more food (FSLOSEWT), or went hungry (FSHUNGR) continue on to answer FSDAYF.

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.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables