Individual and Household Food Insecurity Reports by Adolescents and Parents Lack Agreement in Rural and Urban Mexican Settings

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the degree of agreement between adolescents’ reported individual food insecurity (FI) with their parents reported household FI. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study with 118 adolescents (15.76 ± 1.65 y) and their parents who were recruited from a rural area in Oaxaca (n = 60) and an urban area in Queretaro (n = 58), Mexico. Household FI was assessed in parents using the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA), whereas individual adolescents’ FI was assessed with a scale specific for children/adolescents. Cohen's Kappa estimates were calculated to measure agreement between parents’ and adolescents’ FI, and using Landis and Koch criteria for interpretation. RESULTS: Household FI reported by the parents was 47.5% (34.7% mild and 17.8% moderate + severe), compared to 83.1% (43.3% mild and 39.9% moderate + severe) among adolescents. In both Querétaro and Oaxaca, reported individual FI on the adolescents (75.9% and 90%, respectively) was higher than parents’ reported household FI (37.9% and 67%, respectively). Overall, the Kappa score showed a lack of agreement between the reported parents’ household FI and the adolescents’ individual FI (mild FI, κ = 0.04; moderate FI, κ = 0.02; severe FI κ = 0.16; p > 0.05). Similarly, a lack of agreement between the reported FI of the parents and the reported FI of the adolescents was found separately in Queretaro (mild FI, κ = 0.001; moderate FI, κ = .06; p > 0.05) and Oaxaca (mild FI κ = 0.10; moderate FI κ = −0.06; severe FI κ = 0.10; p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study suggest that the experience of FI in adolescents lacks agreement with the household experience, even when assessed in different contexts (rural/urban), and that adolescents FI experiences might be higher than their parents’. FUNDING SOURCES: No funding sources.