Development and Validation of a Direct Food Insecurity Measurement Instrument: A Study Protocol (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to achieve sustainable food security with a focus on eradicating hunger and poverty. Although some progress has been made, conflicts and food insecurity issues are still inevitable worldwide. In Malaysia, food insecurity is still evident in 2021 as food-insecure groups were present in the surveyed population. The problem leads to negative impacts on the health and development of individuals. To tackle this problem, an appropriate measurement tool is needed to assess the experience of food insecurity among Malaysians. A valid, reliable and culturally specific food insecurity measurement tool is needed for further planning and implementation. OBJECTIVE Our objective is to develop a direct food insecurity measurement instrument that will assist practitioners in assessing food security status in communities. METHODS This paper describes a mixed-methods sequential study to develop and validate a direct food insecurity measurement tool that is culturally specific for use in Malaysia. It begins with a qualitative study to understand the experience of food insecurity among food bank beneficiaries through interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Validation procedures will then be conducted to validate the instrument under study, assessing content validity, construct validity and reliability. Finally, a pilot study will be conducted to evaluate the instrument in order to increase the credibility of this measurement tool in directly assessing the experience of food insecurity. RESULTS In-depth interviews for qualitative data will be carried out after ethics approval and expected to be completed by 2022 November 30. For validation procedures, it is estimated to be completed by 2023 June 31. CONCLUSIONS This study will enable the development and validation of a direct food insecurity measurement tool to be used nationwide in Malaysia, and will go part of the way in assessing the relationship between the determinants and consequences of food insecurity status.