The distribution of food insecurity in Mexico

Abstract

ObjectiveTo estimate the proportion of Mexican households those suffer food insecurity and their association with some interest variables.MethodsData comes from the National Nutrition Survey in Mexico. We used the Latin American and Caribbean household food Security measurement scale (ELCSA) and their association with an index of welfare conditions, allowing categorize households by poverty level, also we included if the head of household or spouse speak an indigenous language.ResultsInformation from 40,809 ‐that nationwide expanded represents 29,099,600‐ households was included. From this data we classify 41.6% of such households in the mild food insecurity (FI) category, 17.7% as moderate and 10.5% as severe. Adding the ciphers from the two lowest categories (moderate and severe) it is observed that in the three months prior the interview date, about 8,322,486 households had to reduce the consumed food amount, or in the worst scenario an adult or a children in such house was left without any food throughout the day. Analyzing the data by urban and rural condition we found a 34.5% and 26.2% of moderate and severe food insecurity respectively. Four out of ten households classified as indigenous and belonging to the lower tertile of welfare conditions index reported suffering moderate or severe food insecurity in the three months prior to the scale application.ConclusionsThe proportion of FI in Mexico is high. It is necessary to analyze and redesign the strategies implemented by the State in order to ensure food security in Mexico.