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. 2020 Jan 23;15(1):e0228099.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228099. eCollection 2020.

Application of the mixture item response theory model to the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children

Isabel Maia  1 , Milton Severo  1   2 , Ana Cristina Santos  1   2
Affiliations

Application of the mixture item response theory model to the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children

Isabel Maia et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children was developed to assess food insecurity of individual children and has not been used in Portugal. We aimed to apply the mixture item response theory model to the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children, to assess its reliability and validity, and to estimate the cut-offs of the food security status for Portuguese children.

Methods: The scale was self-administered to 2132 children of the Generation XXI birth cohort. The internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. We evaluated dimensionality and/or clustering, and Latent Class Analysis, Latent Trait Analysis and Mixture Latent Trait Analysis were tested. The number of classes and/or traits were defined according to the Akaike Information Criterion, Bayesian Information Criterion, Adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion, Vuong-Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test, Bootstrapped Likelihood Ratio Test and Entropy. Construct validity was explored using socio-demographic characteristics. The classification tree was used to define cut-offs to predict cluster membership.

Results: The best model was a Mixture Latent Trait Analysis with 1 factor and 2 classes (food security and food insecurity), assuming class variant item parameters (for items 1 and 3). Based on the estimated posterior probabilities, the food insecurity prevalence was 17.6%. Cronbach's alpha was 0.617. A higher proportion of less-educated mothers and low-income households was observed in the food insecurity class. The classification tree showed an accuracy of 100.0% by identifying the food security and food insecurity groups.

Conclusion: Our results supported that the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children provides a valid and reliable measure, which allows the identification of food insecurity among Portuguese children.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Item operation characteristic curves in the food security class for the nine items of the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children.
F represents the latent trait variable.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Item operation characteristic curves in the food insecurity class for the nine items of the Self-Administered Food Security Survey Module for Children.
F represents the latent trait variable.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Classification tree, showing the cut-off points for the food security status classes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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