Food insecurity in rural families in the extreme south of Brazil

Abstract This study aimed to track the prevalence of Food Insecurity (FI) and to study associated factors in households with children, women and older adults in the rural area of the city of Rio Grande, RS. This is a cross-sectional population-based study, with systematic sampling of 80% of permanently inhabited households. A short version of the Brazilian Scale of Food Insecurity (EBIA) was employed. The associated factors included data referring to the head of the household, as well as data referring to the household. The levels of prevalence and prevalence ratios and their respective confidence intervals were calculated for food insecurity through Poisson regression with robust variance. Of the 1,627 domiciles interviewed, 26% were in an FI situation, and households that included three populations were higher. The most affected domiciles were those in which the head of the household had less than four years of schooling, with more residents, without animal husbandry, belonging to the lowest income quartile and receiving family grants (“Bolsa Família” Program). This study showed the relevance and magnitude of the FI problem in the rural region of Rio Grande since knowledge about the actual FI prevalence of this region is unknown.摘要 本研究旨在追踪巴西南里奥格兰德州里奥格兰德市农村地区有儿童、女性及老年人口的家庭的粮食不安全（Food Insecurity, FI）流行率，并探讨其相关影响因素。本研究为基于人群的横断面研究，对区域内80%的常住家庭开展系统抽样。研究采用了简化版巴西粮食不安全量表（Brazilian Scale of Food Insecurity, EBIA）。相关影响因素涵盖户主特征及家庭整体特征相关数据。本研究采用稳健方差泊松回归，计算了粮食不安全的流行水平、流行率比及其对应置信区间。在受访的1627个家庭中，26%存在粮食不安全情况，且同时包含儿童、女性及老年人口三类人群的家庭风险更高。受粮食不安全影响最严重的家庭为户主受教育年限不足4年、家庭常住人口较多、无畜牧养殖、处于最低收入四分位组且领取家庭补助金（"Bolsa Família"计划）的家庭。鉴于此前尚无该区域粮食不安全实际流行率的相关数据，本研究明确了里奥格兰德市农村地区粮食不安全问题的严重性与影响规模。