Deriving Food Security Indicators from a Household Consumption Module

5th - 9th December 2011, Rome

Key derived indicators

• Daily food energy consumption per capita (kilocalories)

• Population with food energy-deficiency (percent)

Diet Quantity

• Share of food energy from staples (percent)

Diet Quality

Household data requirements for calculating caloric consumption Normally Household Budget Surveys report:

Consumption from purchase of food items Often both metric units (kilograms) and expenditure (monetary

values) Meals outside the home are provided as monetary values

Consumption from own-production of food items Usually in metric units (in some questionnaires the household is

asked to estimate a monetary value as well) Consumption of in-kind food items

Some surveys report only monetary values Kilograms must be estimated from local price data

Example of a consumption moduleOver the past one week (7 days), did you or others in your household consume any ....?

G-01

YES..1NO...2

G-02

ITEMCODE

G-03

How much in total did your household consume in the past week?

G-04

How much came from purchases?

G-05

How much did you spend?

G-06

How much came from own-production?

G-07

How much came from gifts and other sources?

Quantity Unit Quantity Unit Dollars Quantity

Unit Quantity

Unit

Maize 1 101 3 6 1.5 6 12.5 1 6 0.5 6

Rice 1 102 1 2 1 2 - - - - -

Flout 2 103 - - - - - - - - -

Millet 2 104 - - - - - - - - -

Other Cereal 2 106 - - - - - - - - -

Cassava tuber 1 201 3 6 3 6 - - - - -

Sweet potato 2 202 - - - - - - - - -

… … … … … … … … … … … …

Quantity unit code

Description

1 Kilogram

2 Bag (10kg)

3 Bag (50kg)

4 Cup

5 Litre

6 Basket

7 Other (specify)

Additional non-household data requirements

• Edible portion of food items (sometimes written as refuse)• Kilocalories per weight (usually per 100 grams) by food item• The nutritional composition (micro and macro nutritional value) of

the food items

Food composition table

• Used to calculate adult equivalent units per household

Recommended daily caloric intake by sex, age and activity level of individuals

• For households surveys that do not report the expenditure value (often taken from market data collection)

Price data

Example of a food composition table

Food Name Food Group Refuse (%)

Protein (g)

Carbohydrate (g) Fat (g) Fibre (g) Energy (kcal)

BANANA FRUITS 36 1.1 22.8 0.3 2.6 89

BANANA LOAFCEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 4.8 52.4 10.8 1.5 334

BARLEY, PEARLED, COOKED

CEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 2.7 23.8 0.5 3.5 126

BREAD, HEALTH LOAF/ GRANARY

CEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 9.3 46.3 2.7 6.5 276

BREAD, HOMEMADE WITH ONION SOUP, BUTTER- MILK AND CHEESE

CEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 9.0 45.1 2.7 1.6 250

BREAD, MAIZE MEAL (WM, HM)

CEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 7.6 32.1 11.3 1.2 266

BREAD, PITACEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 9.2 57.9 1.2 3.9 299

BREAD, PUMPERNICKEL

CEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 8.3 45.8 1.7 8.6 270

BREAD, RAISINCEREAL AND CEREAL PRODUCTS

0 7.5 50.7 7.6 3.8 319

Information is presented per 100g edible food

Steps in calculating daily household caloric consumption

1. Convert all consumption values into the same metric quantity (i.e. grams) * 2. Calculate the caloric consumption of each food item *3. Estimate the caloric consumption of items with missing information (using various methods)4. Total all kcals per food item to compute household kcals consumed

* Steps 1 and 2 are usually performed by the Statistical office or the World Bank

The process for calculating caloric consumption estimates includes several cleaning steps and decisions by the analyst. The strategy taken will depend on the specific questionnaire module. To avoid duplicating efforts and conflicting results always obtain relevant syntax and output files from the Statistical Office / World Bank.

Step 1: Calculate metric quantities and cash value of each food item

• If a household only reported the cash value of the food item consumed, the metric value must be calculated based upon a metric price. For example:• A household reported consumption of $5 of rice in the past week • From a market survey we know that the metric price of rice is $3/kg • We can estimate that the household consumed 1.67 kg of rice in the past

week

Convert all consumption values into the same metric quantity (normally kg or grams)

• If a household has only provided the weight of consumption, the inverse of the previous example applies:• A household reported consuming 2 kg of rice in the past week • From a market survey we know that the metric price of rice is $3/kg • We can estimate the cash value of their consumption as $6

Find the cash value equivalent of each food item consumed

For detailed procedures on cleaning unit prices and metric quantities, see IFPRI (2007)

Step 2: Calculate the calories consumed for each food item

Caloric consumption is calculated as:

Grams of household consumption per food item is converted from kilograms from previous step

Kcals / 100 grams and edible portion are usually found in food composition tables If the country doesn’t have this information available, refer to a

food composition table from the region or a neighbouring country

What is the edible portion of a food item?Not all of the weight of the food purchased supplies calories. For example, the weight of the peel of a banana should not be included in the derivation of the kilocalories from bananas. This factor provides the percent of the item that is consumable, providing calories and micronutrients.

Step 3: Estimate caloric consumption for missing caloric conversions Some food items may have missing information that

require the analyst to make some decisions Reasons for missing information include:

The specific food item is unknown (for example, meals outside the home, or “other vegetables”)

Items that were listed as “yes” to consumption but have invalid quantity and / or cash value

Step 3: Estimate caloric consumption for missing conversions

Meals outside home• We assume that calories consumed outside of the home cost on average the same as calories in

household• Estimate the cost per kilocalorie for each household

• Apply this to the value (price) spent on meals outside of the home to estimate calories

‘Other’ food items• Estimate the cost per kilocalorie for the food group (vegetables for example) in the household’s

geographic area • co• Apply the derived cost per kilocalorie to the value (price) of consumption of the ‘other’ food item to

estimate the calories consumed

Missing both quantity and value, but consumption (some unknown quantity was consumed) reported

• Apply median calories consumed per capita (or per adult equivalent) by area and wealth quintile• Or if not too many cases, leave it missing

Step 4: Total kilocalories consumed per household, member and AEU Total caloric consumption per household is calculated by

summing the caloric consumption from each food item consumed in the household

Kilocalories per capita:

Kilocalories per adult equivalent:

Adult equivalents Adult equivalents are calculated using a calorie

requirement table which provides the recommended daily caloric intake by age, sex and activity level

Each household member is assigned a weight relative to a reference requirement Normally an adult male of working age is used as the reference

Summing the weights of all household members gives the total adult equivalent units (AEU) of the household The total AEUs will usually be lower than the household size

which gives all members an equal value

Calculating adult equivalents

Age group Kilocalories / day

Age group Male - Kilocalories / day Female - Kilocalories / day

< 1 650 600

>= 1 and < 2 950 850

… … … … … … …Light

ActivityModerate Activity

Heavy Activity Light Activity Moderate Activity

Heavy Activity

>= 15 and < 16 2700 3175 3650 2125 2500 2875

>= 16 and < 17 2825 3325 3825 2125 2500 2875

>= 17 and < 18 2900 3400 3925 2125 2500 2875

>= 18 and < 30 2550 3050 3700 2025 2375 2850

>= 30 and < 60 2500 300 3550 1980 2375 2850

60+ 2075 2475 2950 1775 2125 2550

To calculate the adult equivalent of a 15-year

old girl with light activity, divide the kcal

requirement by the reference requirement

AEU = 2125 / 2550

AEU = 0.83

Categorizing households as food energy deficient This indicator assumes that households allocate food according to the

individual needs of members

Food energy deficient is a bivariate variable 0 = not food energy deficient 1 = food energy deficient

If the kilocalories consumed per AEU are less than the required kilocalorie reference (an adult man), the household is considered food energy deficient.

An SPSS syntax example:Do if (kcals_per_AEU < 2550) Compute energy_def = 1.Else if (kcals_per_AEU >= 2550) Compute energy_def = 0.End if.

Other calorie consumption derived variables

Caloric consumption by

food group•Quantifies the amount of calories derived from staples, pulses, vegetables, meat/fish/eggs, etc. •Report individual kcals consumed per food group or proportion of kcals from each food group (see next)

Food energy from staples:•Households with a high proportion of energy derived from staples are considered to have a relatively poor diet•Sum of kilocalories from staples relative to total caloric consumption in household

Sources of food:

•Quantity consumed from each source: purchase, own production and in-kind•Sum up total kilocalories consumed per household and divide kilocalories consumed per each source