PREVALENCE OF THE HOUSEHOLD FOOD INSECURITY AND ITS INFLUENCING FACTORS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY (KHOY CITY-QARESOO-2009).

Food security is one of the major challenges for socioeconomic programs in the communities. The number of food-insecure people in the 70 lowest-income countries rose from 849 million to 982 million between 2006 and 2007 in the world. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity and its influencing factors.

Materials &Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2500 households selected from Qaresoo region in Khoy city of the northwest of Iran. Household food security status was measured by a validated short questionnaire including six questions. Other required data (influencing factors) also were obtained alongside the validated questionnaire. Chi-square and logistic regression were used for data analysis using SPSS software.

Results: Prevalence of household food insecurity was 59.4 percent. Household food insecurity decreased by increasing the number of rooms at home, store numbers at village, residential infrastructure. Household food insecurity increased by distance from city. There was a significant relation between household food insecurity and family car ownership, home situation (rental or personal), parent situation at home (attendance of father and mother or one of them at home) and household's income (per month).

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that household food insecurity is prevalent in the northwest of Iran. Household's socioeconomic status was found as an important factor on household food security status.