title: Assessing the cross-sectional and inter-temporal validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) in Burundi.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the cross-sectional and inter-temporal validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) for rural households in Burundi.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal survey about food security and agricultural production, individually administered by trained interviewers in June 2007 and 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ngozi, north of Burundi.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three hundred and fourteen household heads were interviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tobit models showed that the HFIAS was significantly correlated with objective measures of food security, in this case total annual food production (P<0·01), livestock keeping (P<0·01) and coffee production (P<0·01) in both 2007 and 2012. This confirms that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid and corroborates the findings of previous studies. However, while total food production decreased by more than 25 % in terms of energy between 2007 and 2012, households reported an improvement in their perceived food security over the same period, with the HFIAS decreasing from 13·9 to 10·8 (P<0·001). This finding questions the inter-temporal validity of the HFIAS. It may be partly explained through response shifts, in which households assess their own food security status in comparison to that of their peers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The evidence from our study suggests that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid, but may not be inter-temporally valid, and should not be used as a single indicator to study temporal trends in food security.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Agricultural Economics,Ghent University,Coupure Links 653,9000 Gent,Belgium.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7167-8466
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Desiere
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Agricultural Economics,Ghent University,Coupure Links 653,9000 Gent,Belgium.
authors.forename: Marijke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'Haese
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Agricultural Economics,Ghent University,Coupure Links 653,9000 Gent,Belgium.
authors.forename: Sanctus
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niragira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000383:Agriculture; D002063:Burundi; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Burundi; Food security; HFIAS; Inter-temporal validity