TY - JOUR AU - Kailasam, Abirami AU - Kannan, Bharathi AU - Lochan, Eashwar Barath AU - K., Sathya Narayanan AU - Chaudhuri, Sirshendu AU - Mohan, Venkata Raghava PY - 2019/08/27 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Household food security in rural Tamil Nadu: a survey from Kaniyambadi block, Vellore district JF - International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health JA - Int J Community Med Public Health VL - 6 IS - 9 SE - Original Research Articles DO - 10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20193995 UR - https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/5121 SP - 3928-3933 AB - <p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Adequate and safe food is a basic requirement for every individual. Inadequate food leads to food insecurity. Household-level food insecurity may directly influence the health of an individual. We aimed to assess the prevalence of household-level food insecurity in the rural areas of Kaniyambadi block and to assess the household level determinants of food insecurity.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A cross-sectional study was conducted in villages of Kaniyambadi block, a rural development block of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. Households were the unit of study. The interview was conducted with a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire in Tamil. ‘U.S. Food Security Survey module’, September 2012, for a reference period of 30 days was used to determine food security status.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> One hundred and fifty households were selected; 15 from each 10 randomly selected villages. Prevalence of food insecurity we got as 52.7% [95% CI: 44.6%, 60.8%]. Determinants like ‘low (&lt;1225 INR/ month) per capita income’ [Adjusted odds ratio (AOR)- 6.7; 95% CI: 3.3,13.6]; ‘presence of debt at the time of interview’ [AOR- 3.5; 95% CI:1.7, 7.3] and ‘presence of at least one smoker in the family’ [AOR- 3.2; 95% CI:1.5, 6.8], were found to be associated significantly with food insecurity, after adjusting for the clusters by multi-level modelling.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Food insecurity is a hidden phenomenon in India. Poverty is the key determinant behind this. To alleviate food insecurity, it will be logical to adopt multi-dimensional approaches with thrust on implementing the existing poverty alleviating programs.</p> ER -