Table 1.
US Food Security Survey Module (FSSM) for households without children by Veteran status from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–16
| Question | Veteran | non-Veteran | Response options | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | ||
| In the last 12 months: | Affirmative/total response | ||||
| 1) {I/we} worried whether {my/our} food would run out before {I/we} got money to buy more | 271/1227 | 22 % | 605/2432 | 25 % |
Often true
Sometimes true Never True |
| 2) The food that {I/we} bought just didn’t last, and {I/we} didn’t have enough money to get more food | 229/1227 | 19 % | 522/2432 | 21 % | |
| 3) {I/we} couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals | 198/1227 | 16 % | 450/2432 | 19 % | |
| If an affirmative (often or sometimes true) response to questions 1, 2 or 3, then: | |||||
| 4) Did {you/you or other adults in your household} ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? | 140/312 | 45 % | 278/695 | 40 % |
Yes
No |
| 5) Did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn’t enough money to buy food? | 134/312 | 43 % | 278/694 | 40 % | |
| 6) Were you ever hungry but didn’t eat because you couldn’t afford enough food? | 84/312 | 27 % | 164/695 | 24 % | |
| 7) Did you lose weight because you didn’t have enough money for food? | 51/310 | 16 % | 98/694 | 14 % | |
| If an affirmative (Yes) response to any question 4–7, then: | |||||
| 8) Did {you/you or other adults in your household} ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? | 33/160 | 21 % | 77/349 | 22 % |
Yes
No |
| If an affirmative (Yes) response to questions 4 or 8, then: | |||||
| 9) How often did {you/you or other adults in your household} cut the size of your meals or skip meals? | 110/140 | 79 % | 220/278 | 79 % |
Almost every month
Some months but not every month Only 1 or 2 months |
| 10) How often did {you/you or other adults in your household} ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? | 28/33 | 85 % | 59/77 | 77 % | |
n 1227 Veterans and n 2432 non-Veterans. Questions refer to all household members, not just NHANES participants. Refused and do not know responses were excluded. Bold responses are considered affirmative for the classification of marginal, low and very low food security.