Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Re: ¿Cómo enfrentan los países de América Latina la doble carga de la malnutrición?

Household food insecurity (HFI) plays an important role in the double burden of malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Experience-based HFI measurement scales such as the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) have allowed researchers to document that HFI is associated with both chronic undernutrition (i.e., stunting), infectious diseases (e.g., malaria), and maternal anemia, as well as with women’s overweight/obesity  and related chronic diseases including hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Thus it is imperative to add HFI indicators drawn from scales such as ELCSA to the suite of indicators used to monitor food and nutrition security in the context of the double burden of malnutrition in The Region. Over a decade of experience applying ELCSA-like scales through national surveys and monitorign systems tells us that this approach is likely to help policy makers improve the governance of their food security systems in the Latin America and the Caribbean.

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD

Professor, Yale School of Public Health

References:

1.        Comité Científico ELCSA. Escala Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Seguridad Alimentaria (ELCSA): Manual de uso y aplicación. FAO, Santiago, Chile, 2011. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3065s.pdf

2.        Shamah-Levy T, Mundo-Rosas V, Rivera-Dommarco  JA. [Magnitude of food insecurity in Mexico: its relationship with nutritional status and socioeconomic  factors]. Salud Publica Mex. 2014;56 Suppl 1:s79-85.

3.        Pérez-Escamilla R, Dessalines M, Finnigan M, Pachón H, Hromi-Fiedler A, Gupta  N. Household food insecurity is associated with childhood malaria iCn rural Haiti. J Nutr. 2009 Nov;139(11):2132-8.

4.        Fischer NC, Shamah-Levy T, Mundo-Rosas V, Méndez-Gómez-Humarán I, Pérez-Escamilla R. Household food insecurity is associated with anemia in adult Mexican women of reproductive age. J Nutr. 2014 Dec;144(12):2066-72. 

5.        Pérez-Escamilla R, Villalpando S, Shamah-Levy T, Méndez-Gómez Humarán I. Household food insecurity, diabetes and hypertension among Mexican adults: results from Ensanut 2012. Salud Publica Mex. 2014;56 Suppl 1:s62-70.

6.        Schlüssel MM, Silva AA, Pérez-Escamilla R, Kac G. Household food insecurity and excess weight/obesity among Brazilian women and children: a life-course approach. Cad Saude Publica. 2013 Feb;29(2):219-26.

7.        Pérez-Escamilla R. Can experience-based household food security scales help improve food security governance? Glob Food Sec. 2012 Dec 1;1(2):120-125.