Nationally representative estimates of food insecurity during COVID-19: An investigation of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale in Australia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to measure the prevalence of food insecurity (FI) in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic using the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Employing the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, Rasch models alongside a discrete method were used to investigate the severity of FI and robustness of the 8-item FIES during 2020–2021. Our results indicate that during 2020–2021, 6.47% of Australians experienced moderate or severe FI and 2.93% experienced severe FI. Validation tests following United Nations guidelines show similar weighted and unweighted results and consistency with the discrete method. Infit and outfit metrics, alon..