title: Household food security status in the Northeast of Iran: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An important issue the world faces today is ensuring that households living in different countries have access to enough food to maintain a healthy life. Food insecurity is prevalent in both developed and developing countries. The objective of this study was to assess the household food security status and related factors among different rural districts of Neyshabur (A city in northeast of Iran).
  
  
  METHODS
  Of 5000 selected rural households 4647 were studied in this cross-sectional study. A validated short questionnaire (with six questions) was used to measure food security. Chi-square test and logistic regression were used for data analysis through SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 2747 households (59.1%) were identified as food secure. The highest prevalence of food security was observed in Central district (62.3%) and the lowest was in Miyanjolgeh district (52.9%). Backward multiple logistic regression revealed that car ownership, presence of chronic disease in household and household income (per month) were significantly associated with food security in all of surveyed districts (p< 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to results of this study, lower than 60% of Neyshabur rural households were food secure and economic variables were the most important factors. Therefore, a special attention should be paid to this health problem in these regions.
authors.affiliation: MSc in Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences, Neyshabur & PhD student in Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Aagholami80@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gholami
authors.affiliation: MSc in Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. foroozan_327@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Zohre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Foroozanfar
keywords: Food security; Household; Iran