Seasonality poses a considerable food security challenge in Ethiopia. Yet, measuring seasonal variations in food insecurity, particularly the dimension of food access, lacks an adequately validated tool. We therefore evaluated the performance of an adapted Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) to estimate seasonal variations in food insecurity (FI) among subsistence villagers in Ethiopia. We employed a cohort study design using a panel of four repeated measurements taken in June, September, and December in the year 2017, and in March 2018. The study recruited 473 villagers from the drought-affected Wolaita area in southwest Ethiopia. The performance of the HFIAS was evaluated via internal consistency (Chronbach’s alpha values) and criterion validation techniques. The set of criteria include: parallelism between affirmative responses to FI questions and wealth strata; dose-response relationship between FI and dietary intake; and also FI severity and household wealth status. This study revealed that the HFIAS had satisfactory performance in four repeated measurements. The likelihood of affirmative responses to questions about FI decreased with ascending wealth quintiles. We observed an inverse dose-response relationship between FI and wealth status, and between FI and household dietary diversity. The HFIAS showed an acceptable potential for measuring seasonal variations in FI in the study area. Our findings complement efforts to evaluate the scale’s applicability in various settings, in order to promote cross-culture monitoring and comparisons. However, it required a careful adaption for contextual and cultural sensitivities.

中文翻译：

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调整后的家庭粮食不安全获取量表在测量埃塞俄比亚农村家庭粮食不安全的季节性方面的表现：队列分析

季节性给埃塞俄比亚带来了相当大的粮食安全挑战。然而，衡量粮食不安全的季节性变化，特别是粮食获取的维度，缺乏一个经过充分验证的工具。因此，我们评估了改编后的家庭粮食不安全获取量表 (HFIAS) 的表现，以估计埃塞俄比亚自给自足村民粮食不安全 (FI) 的季节性变化。我们采用队列研究设计，使用 2017 年 6 月、9 月和 12 月以及 2018 年 3 月进行的四次重复测量。该研究从埃塞俄比亚西南部受干旱影响的 Wolaita 地区招募了 473 名村民。HFIAS 的性能通过内部一致性（Chronbach's alpha 值）和标准验证技术进行评估。这组标准包括：对金融机构问题的肯定回答与财富阶层之间的平行性；FI和膳食摄入量之间的剂量反应关系；以及 FI 严重程度和家庭财富状况。这项研究表明，HFIAS 在四次重复测量中具有令人满意的性能。随着财富五分位数的增加，对 FI 问题的肯定回答的可能性降低。我们观察到 FI 与财富状况之间以及 FI 与家庭饮食多样性之间的反向剂量反应关系。HFIAS 显示出测量研究区域 FI 季节性变化的可接受潜力。我们的研究结果补充了评估量表在各种环境中的适用性的努力，以促进跨文化监测和比较。然而，它需要仔细适应环境和文化敏感性。