Search Results (18)

The study examines changes in household food security and identifies their key determinants in Zambia by comparing the pre-pandemic period to the COVID-19 pandemic period. Using nationally representative surveys from 2015 and 2021 and the coarsened exact matching (CEM) approach, 8650 households were matched for comparison. Two complementary food security measures are analysed using multinomial logit regression models: household expenditure share, representing economic vulnerability, and household dietary diversity score (HDDS), representing diet quality. The results show that household food expenditure share significantly increased from 53.8% to 61.4%, indicating increased economic vulnerability. Notably, household dietary diversity improved from 7.1 to 8.2 out of 12, indicating better dietary quality. Consistent determinants of food security—such as household size, education level, marital status, region, and employment—remained significant, but their protective effects weakened during the pandemic. Specifically, the protective effect of education declined, urban households became relatively more vulnerable, and wealthier households experienced minimal changes. The study recommends targeted interventions, including expanding social protection programmes for economically vulnerable households, supporting informal food markets, enhancing rural–urban food supply linkages, and promoting nutrition education to ensure diverse, affordable food access during crises. Full article

In this paper, we utilize the 2019/20 Uganda National Household Survey data to answer three related questions: (i) To what extent did out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) for health care services exceed the threshold for household financial catastrophe amidst COVID-19? (ii) What is the impoverishing effect of OOPs for health care services on household welfare? (iii) What are the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of OOPs for health care services in Uganda? Leveraging three health expenditure thresholds (10%, 25%, and 40%), we run a Tobit model for “left-censored” health expenditures and quantile regressions, and we find that among households which incur any form of health care expense, 37.7%, 33.6%, and 28.7% spend more than 10%, 25%, and 40% of their non-food expenditures on health care, respectively. Their average OOP budget share exceeds the respective thresholds by 82.9, 78.0, and 75.8 percentage points. While, on average, household expenditures on medicine increased amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, expenditures on consultations, transport, traditional doctors’ medicines, and other unbroken hospital charges were reduced during the same period. We find that the comparatively low incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditures (CHEs) in the pandemic period was not necessarily due to low household health spending, but due to foregone and substituted care. Precisely, considering the entire weighted sample, about 22% of Ugandans did not seek medical care during the pandemic due to a lack of funds, compared to 18.6% in the pre-pandemic period. More Ugandans substituted medical care from health facilities with herbs and home remedies. We further find that a 10% increase in OOPs reduces household food consumption expenditures by 2.6%. This modality of health care financing, where households incur CHEs, keeps people in chronic poverty. Full article

The EAT-Lancet diet outlines target consumption for specific food components but overlooks accessibility and cost issues, which may hinder adherence among vulnerable populations. This study examines the acquisition profile of EAT-Lancet diet components by food security and poverty status, using data from 57,920 households in the 2017–2018 Brazilian Household Budget Survey. Poverty and food insecurity were defined according to the World Bank per capita income cutoffs and the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale, respectively. Food acquisition was classified into 15 EAT-Lancet diet components and expressed as per capita daily averages (g, % of total available energy, and % of food expenditure), by food security and poverty strata. Brazilian households were 37.9% food-insecure and 12% poor. Compared to more privileged counterparts, these households prioritized the acquisition of staples like refined cereals and legumes over most EAT-Lancet diet adequacy components, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and peanuts. While lower energy shares from moderation components were only slightly evident for red meat and dairy among food-insecure households, pronounced reductions in added sugars and vegetable oils were seen among the poor. These findings suggest that public policies should synergically address particularities of different deprivation contexts to promote sustainable diets in Brazil. Full article

Household food waste accounts for a significant share of total food waste. In 2022, around 1.05 billion tons of food waste were generated—60% of which came from households. In the EU, households generate 54% of the total food waste. In Italy, according to a former diary study, avoidable household food waste accounts for 529.9 g per capita per week. Building on this data, this study assesses the monetary value of food waste at the household level in 6 provinces across the country, considering the prices of food items recorded by the Italian Observatory of market prices. Moreover, the environmental impacts of household food waste (greenhouse gas emissions, water consumed, and land used) were investigated based on existing data from well-grounded scientific literature. The results show that the monetary value of food waste ranges from EUR 357.43 to EUR 404.62 per household per year, corresponding to 5–7% of the average household expenditure for food. The environmental impacts per household per year account for 149 kgCO₂eq, which contributes to climate change. In addition, household food waste is responsible for 303,498 L of water consumed and 1426 m² of land used. The results of this study can be integrated into National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), to integrate food waste reduction into energy savings and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. Full article

It is unknown how recurring flooding impacts household diet in Central Java. We aimed to assess how recurrent flooding influenced household food access over 22 years in Central Java by linking the Global Surface Water dataset (GSW) to the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We examined linear and nonlinear relationships and joint effects with indicators of adaptive capacity. We measured recurrent flooding as the fraction of district raster cells with episodic flooding from 1984–2015 using GSW. Food access outcomes were household food expenditure share (FES) and dietary diversity score (DDS). We fit generalized linear mixed models and random forest regression models. We detected joint effects with flooding and adaptive capacity. Wealth and access to credit were associated with improved FES and DDS. The effect of wealth on FES was stronger in households in more flood-affected districts, while access to credit was associated with reduced odds of DDS in more flood-affected districts. Flooding had more predictive importance for FES than for DDS. Access to credit, a factor that ordinarily improves food access, may not be effective in flood-prone areas. Wealthier households may be better able to adapt in terms of food access. Future research should incorporate land use data to understand how different locales are affected and further understand the complexity of these relationships. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic not only caused a global health crisis but also had a huge impact on household finances. This research aimed to examine the financial situation of rural and urban households in Poland between 2018 and 2022 from a multidimensional perspective. In a unidimensional approach, the financial situation of households was analyzed separately for their income, expenditures, savings rate, and shares of fixed expenses. In a multidimensional approach, the analysis used a synthetic index constructed for all these variables combined, employing the TOPSIS method and drawing on microdata from the Polish Central Statistical Office that totaled approximately 150,000 households. It was found that despite the pandemic outbreak, which led to major changes in the labor market, government-introduced organizational and legal measures protected the income of Polish households from decline. Indeed, income was increasing up until 2021, with a modest fall in 2022, which was less severe in rural households (by about 2%) than in urban ones (by 6%). A more immediate response to the outbreak was observed in consumer spending, which fell sharply, while the food share in consumption increased at similar levels in rural and urban areas. Regression analysis showed that compared to 2019, the pandemic worsened the financial situation of Polish households, but only in 2020 and 2022 were these changes statistically significant. In 2021, the financial situation improved slightly, but the change was not statistically significant. Before the pandemic, the synthetic assessment of the financial situation in rural areas was lower than in urban ones, and the pandemic period did not reduce these differences, showing no convergence between poorer rural areas and richer urban ones. Diagnosing and monitoring the household financial situation are crucial steps for achieving the social dimension goals of sustainable development. Research on the pandemic’s effects on household finances provides valuable information that can help develop effective strategies to counter future crises while supporting the social dimension of the sustainable development strategy. Full article

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 seeks to end hunger and guarantee food and nutrition security worldwide by 2030. Smallholder irrigation development remains a key strategy to achieve SDG 2. This study assesses how smallholder irrigation contributes to household food security in Mberengwa district, Zimbabwe. Primary data were gathered from a randomly chosen sample of 444 farmers (344 irrigators and 100 non-irrigators) using a structured questionnaire. Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27 software packages were used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, t-test, and binary logistic regression were performed. The t-test results show significant differences in mean between irrigators and non-irrigators for household size, the dependency ratio, farming experience, farm income, food expenditure share, and livestock owned (p < 0.05). Irrigators had significantly higher area planted, yield, and quantity sold for maize during the summer than non-irrigators (p < 0.05). Food Consumption Score results show that 97% of irrigators and 45% of non-irrigators were food secure. Binary logistic regression results reveal a significant association between food security and household size, irrigation access, and farm income (p < 0.05). In conclusion, access to smallholder irrigation increases household food security. The government and its development partners should prioritise investments in smallholder irrigation development, expansion, and rehabilitation. Full article

Gunungkidul district, situated in the Karst Mountain area, represents one of the more poverty-stricken regions in Indonesia. The arid nature of this area, coupled with the scarcity of surface water, poses significant challenges to economic development endeavors, particularly in agriculture and animal husbandry. The vulnerability of the natural environment, unfavorable agro-climatic conditions, and unsuitable geographical features further hamper agricultural economic activities in the Karst Mountains of Gunungkidul. This condition causes dryland farm households to be vulnerable to food insecurity. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate dryland farm households’ food security in the Karst Mountain area and examine the associations of food insecurity using the share of household expenditure on food (SEF), energy intake levels, protein intake levels, and food security classification. Food security classification is specifically considered by two indicators, food expenditure proportion, and energy intake levels. The result showed that the number of family laborers, farming experience, household income, farm size, and production negatively impact the share of household expenditure on food. The average household energy consumption is sufficient, but the average protein consumption is less than others. Household food security in the Girisubo sub-district is still low since most households (70.09%) are undernourished, food vulnerable, and food insecure. Dryland farmer households need to get assistance from the local government or the private sector to grasp information about good expenditure management and food nutrition fulfillment in order to improve food security. Full article

Tobacco consumption contributes to a substantial amount of household expenditures, which might lead to decreased spending on other essentials. This study examines household head tobacco expenditures in various inequality settings. In this study, we investigated the impact of gender, race, and educational inequality and the substitution effect of tobacco expenditure on essentials such as children’s education and household food. We looked at how much of the resources household heads spend on tobacco in different inequality settings that replace households’ essentials. The panel setting of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), South Africa’s first nationally representative household panel survey, is used as a data collection source for this study. These are household surveys conducted by the Presidency’s Office of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation. The panel data are subject to attrition in longitudinal research. We compared the conditional expenditure shares of various types of households using econometric models such as moment quantile regression. A negative and statistically significant estimated coefficient of tobacco expenditure and the coefficient of the interacted term (inequality and tobacco expenditure) demonstrated the substitution effect. The findings reveal that low-income households whose heads smoke tobacco invest less in their children’s education, while well-educated heads of high-income households’ place as much value on their children’s education as they do on cigarette expenditure. The study also points out that the share of income spent on cigarettes by black household heads is negatively connected to their children’s education across all quantiles compared to non-blacks. We conclude that low-income households are more likely to experience the substitution impact than high-income households. This study recommends, among other things, that low-income households should prioritize needs over non-essentials in order to maximize household satisfaction, and government should implement policies that will limit tobacco consumption expenditure. Full article

The cost of diet has been recognized as a major determinant of overall diet quality and nutritional outcomes. We aimed to estimate the minimum cost and affordability of the recommended diet based on the updated food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) in Bangladesh. To compute the cost of the recommended diet (CoRD), we collected retail prices of foods corresponding to each of the food groups in the latest Bangladeshi FBDG. For affordability, the household size and daily food expenditure data were used from the most recent Household Income and Expenditure survey (HIES). The CoRD was calculated based on the average number of servings recommended for each food group; the CoRD was adjusted by a deflation factor and divided by the household’s daily food expenditure to estimate affordability. We found that the CoRD was $0.87 (83 BDT) per person per day at the national level. Nationally, about 43% of households could not afford the CoRD, with rural areas bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. We also found households to overspend on starchy staples while underspending on protein-rich foods, fruits, and dairy. These findings highlight the need for immediate implementation of interventions to improve the affordability of the CoRD and redesign policy instruments to create a sustainable food system. Full article

We examine the effects of receiving remittances on household saving behaviour and expenditure patterns in Vietnam. We consider the amount of saving, the saving rate, and the share of expenditure, as well as per capita expenditure on education, health, assets, house repairs, food, non-food, and utilities. We apply propensity score matching to data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) of 2012. We find that remittances have a positive impact on household savings and increase both the amount of saving and the saving rate. As far as expenditure patterns are concerned, our results indicate that receiving households spend more on health, assets, and house repairs, and less on food. This finding suggests that households tend to use remittances productively, with receiving households increasing their investments in human and physical capital. For the economy as a whole, remittances can create more opportunities for the development of services provided by banks, financial institutions, hospitals and healthcare centres, and give incentives to the production of building materials and tangible assets. Full article

The study explored the spatial differences in diet quality and economic vulnerability to food insecurity with the association of sociodemographic characteristics at the household level in Bangladesh. This study was a secondary data analysis of Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data of 2016. Both statistical and spatial analyses were applied while assessing diet qualities in terms of the household dietary diversity score (HDDS), percentage of food energy from staples (PFES), and percentage of expenditure on food (PEF) as an indicator of the economic vulnerability to food insecurity (EVFI). The study’s findings revealed that the quality of people’s diets worsened as they moved from urban to rural area, and EVFI increased as they moved from the center to the periphery of the country. Nationally, the average HDDS was about 6.3, and the average PFES per household per day was about 70.4%. The spatial distribution of HDDS and PFES showed that rural regions in terms of settlements and the north, northwest and southeast regions had mostly low diet diversity. Besides, the average PEF per household per day was about 54%, with the highest in Mymensingh (57.4%) and the lowest in Dhaka division (50.2%). The average PEF in the households illustrated was highest in rural (55.2%) and lowest in the city (45.7%). Overall, based on the PEF at the sub-district level, the medium level of vulnerability comprised the highest share (69%) in Bangladesh. Age, gender, literacy, educational qualification and religion of the household’s head along with the number of earners, monthly income, area of settlements and divisions were significantly correlated with HDDS, PFES and EVFI. The study findings suggest that targeted interventions, including access to education, women empowerment and employment generation programs should be implemented in peripheral areas (north, northwest and southeast) to increase diet quality and minimize economic vulnerability to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security in Bangladesh. Full article

Disruptive events such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have the potential to reshape even the most basic human systems and behaviors, including those related to food production, acquisition, and consumption. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of how the pandemic has changed the ratio of food-away-from-home (FAFH) expenditure to income in Mexico, as well as participation in this market. In 2020, household participation in FAFH expenditures declined in all income deciles and regions, but the impact on household shares is far from uniform. Using a detailed national database of household income and expenditures (N = 87,274), an Engel curve of the Working-Lesser functional form for FAFH including 19 independent variables was estimated using the Heckman method appropriate for censored response data. The results provide statistically significant estimates for income, which both increases the probability of participation in this expenditure and has a negative relationship with its budget share. The number of older adults and the exposure to food insecurity during the pandemic similarly limit participation and increase the budget share. In addition, remittances encourage participation and decrease the budget share. The corrected conditional income elasticity for FAFH is 0.4609; the sign and magnitude indicate that FAFH behaved as a necessary good in Mexico for the proportion of households that maintained spending during the lockdown conditions (about one-third of the sample). An increase or decrease in income will lead to a corresponding change in FAFH expenditure, but the change will be less than proportional. Full article

Meat products represent a significant share of US consumer food expenditures. The COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted both demand and supply of US beef and pork products for a prolonged period, resulting in a myriad of economic impacts. The complex disruptions create significant challenges in isolating and inferring consumer-demand changes from lagged secondary data. Thus, we turn to novel household-level data from a continuous consumer tracking survey, the Meat Demand Monitor, launched in February 2020, just before the US pandemic. We find diverse impacts across US households related to “hoarding” behavior and financial confidence over the course of the pandemic. Combined, these insights extend our understanding of pandemic impacts on US consumers and provide a timely example of knowledge enabled by ongoing and targeted household-level data collection and analysis. Full article

In many developing countries, food environments are changing rapidly, with modern retailers—such as supermarkets—gaining in importance. Previous studies have suggested that the rise of modern retailers contributes to overweight and obesity. Effects of modern retailers on dietary quality have not been analyzed previously due to the unavailability of individual-level dietary data. Here, we address this research gap with data from randomly selected households in Lusaka, Zambia. Anthropometric and food-intake data from 930 adults and 499 children were analyzed to estimate effects of purchasing food in modern retailers on body weight, height, and dietary quality while controlling for income and other confounding factors. The food expenditure share spent in modern retailers was found to be positively associated with overweight in adults, but not in children. For children, a positive association between expenditures in modern retailers and height was identified. Modern retailers contribute to higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and calories. But they also increase protein and micronutrient intakes among adults and children, mainly through higher consumption of meat and dairy. The findings underline that modern retailers can influence diets and nutrition in positive and negative ways. Differentiated regulatory policies are needed to shape food environments for healthy food choices and nutrition. Full article