Abstract
To validate the telephone modality of the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) included in three waves of a phone survey to estimate the monthly household food insecurity prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. We examined the reliability and internal validity of the ELCSA scale in three repeated waves of cross-sectional surveys with Rasch models. We estimated the monthly prevalence of food insecurity in the general population and in households with and without children and compared them with a national 2018 survey. We tested concurrent validity by testing associations of food insecurity with socio-economic status and anxiety. ENCOVID-19 is a monthly telephone cross-sectional survey collecting information on the well-being of Mexican households during the pandemic lockdown. Surveys used probabilistic samples, and we used data from April (n 833), May (n 850) and June 2020 (n 1674). Mexicans 18 years or older who had a mobile telephone. ELCSA had an adequate model fit and food insecurity was associated, within each wave, with more poverty and anxiety. The COVID-19 lockdown was associated with an important reduction in food security, decreasing stepwise from 38·9 % in 2018 to 24·9 % in June 2020 in households with children. Telephone surveys were a feasible strategy to monitor reductions in food security during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Highlights
The adapted version of the Escala Latinoamericana y Caribena de Seguridad Alimentaria (ELCSA) scale used in ENCOVID19 repeated cross-sectional surveys was found to be reliable
Severity parameters inversely mirror the mean’s order and showed how the adapted version of the ELCSA in the ENCOVID-19 was able to measure the full range of the latent trait
The severity parameters of the raw summative score were equivalent between surveys (Table 2). These results indicate that the summative score of ELCSA from ENCOVID-19 was able to measure well the three levels of food insecurity when compared with ENSANUT 2018
Summary
Data source ENCOVID-19 is a monthly telephone cross-sectional survey, representative at a national level of individuals 18 years and older who have a mobile phone. This initiative is led by an academic research centre in strong partnership with international agencies and local civil society organisations. ENCOVID-19 is publicly available and offers timely data to decision-makers and the public at large on the social consequences of the lockdown measures in four main domains: labour, income, mental health and food security. It started in April 2020 and will continue for 12 more months[26]. The first ENCOVID-19 survey was collected from 6 April to 14 April (n 833), the second wave between 20 May and 25 May (n 850) and the third wave between 5 June and 17 June (n 1674)
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