Test-Retest Reliability of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey's 5-Item Food Insecurity Questionnaire Completed by Fourth-Grade Children

Objective: To examine test-retest reliability and internal consistency of a 5-item food insecurity questionnaire used in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Methods: Researchers administered NHANES's questionnaire in the classroom to 92 fourth-grade children (74 African American; 48 girls) in 2 sessions 27-30 days apart in spring, 2011. Each classroom administration lasted 5-10 minutes. Results: Test-retest reliability was 0.66 (Kendall tau), which is modest. Internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) was .67 and .70 for respective administrations. Food insecurity scores were related to gender (adjusted P = .05) and academic achievement (adjusted P = .004) but not to socioeconomic status or body mass index percentile (binomial regression). On average, boys reported higher food insecurity than girls. Children with lower academic achievement scores reported higher food insecurity than children with higher academic achievement scores. Conclusions and Implications: NHANES's 5-item questionnaire may be group administered to assess food insecurity efficiently as reported by individual fourth-grade children.