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Development of Indicators to Assess Hunger^1,2,3,4,

Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

Despite widespread concern about hunger in America, efforts to monitor and assess the extent of hunger have been hampered by lack of consensus on an appropriate meaning for the term hunger and by the lack of valid indicators to assess it. The first phase of the research used qualitative methods to derive a socially-appropriate definition of hunger. Thirty-two women in Upstate New York were interviewed regarding their experience with food problems and hunger. The interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results indicated that women had a narrow and a broad concept of hunger. The narrow concept focused on going without food for a specified period of time and the physical sensation of hunger. The broad one included two dimensions: household and individual hunger. Each had quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social components. The second phase of the research used survey methodology to examine the validity and reliability of items designed to measure the conceptual definition of hunger. The survey was administered to 189 women in Upstate New York who participated in programs designed for low-income households or households in need of food. The second phase confirmed the conceptualization of hunger developed in the first phase. A subset of valid and reliable items that represented each of the major dimensions and components of hunger was identified as being useful for monitoring and assessing hunger.

KEY WORDS: • hunger • nutrition monitoring • nutrition status assessment

¹ Presented as part of a conference, "Nutrition Monitoring and Nutrition Status Assessment", at the first fall meeting of the American Institute of Nutrition, Charleston, South Carolina, December 8–10, 1989. The conference was supported in part by cooperative agreement HPU880004-02-1 with the DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the USDA Human Nutrition Information Service, the DHHS National Center for Health Statistics, and the International Life Sciences Institute-Nutrition Foundation.

² The Planning Committee for the meeting consisted of Drs. Helen A. Guthrie, Roy J. Martin, Linda D. Meyers, James A. Olson, Catherine E. Woteki, and Richard G. Allison (ex officio). The symposium papers were edited by a committee consisting of Dr. James Allen Olson (coordinator), Dept. of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA; Dr. Cathy C. Campbell, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Dr. Roy J. Martin, Dept. of Foods & Nutrition, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; and Dr. Catherine E. Woteki, Food & Nutrition Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

³ This research was approved by Cornell University Committee on Human Subjects.

⁴ The research was supported in part by contract C-001038 with the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Nutrition and by the Small Grants Program of the Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University.

⁵ During her graduate studies, Ms. Radimer was supported through a fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

Manuscript received 10 December 1989. Revision accepted 11 July 1990.

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