Household Food Security in Sarawak: a Hierarchical Binary Logistic Regression Analysis

Liang Tung Wong; Mizanur Rahman

Authors

Liang Tung Wong DrPH student, Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak, Malaysia. Email: alf_wlt@hotmail.com
Mizanur Rahman Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak, Malaysia. Enail: rmmizanur@unimas.my

Keywords:

Food security, Food waste, Social cohesion, Food planning routines, Sarawak

Abstract

Introduction: Food security exists when people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient security and nutritive food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Objective: We examined the relationship between household food security with three constructs, viz., food waste behaviour, food planning routines, and social cohesion. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. A multistage random sampling method was used to select households across Sarawak. Data from a total of 2,065 respondents were collected via face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 27.0. A p-value of < .05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Of the respondents, 37.2% were food insecure. Hierarchical binary logistic regression revealed that food planning routine increased the odds of household food insecurity by 27% (AOR= 1.27, 95% CI: 1.13-1.44), while social cohesion reduced the odds of food insecurity by 11% (AOR= 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81-0.97). However, no significant finding was found between food waste behaviour and food security. Conclusion: Findings from the current study can strengthen the understanding of household food security among Sarawak population. Long-term programmes focusing on reducing food insecurity would be effective by promoting social cohesion among the public.

References

Food and Agriculture Organization. An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Food Security. 2008.

Webb P, Stordalen GA, Singh S, Wijesinha-Bettoni R, Shetty P, Lartey A. Hunger and malnutrition in the 21st century. BMJ. 2018; 361: k2238.

Food and Agriculture Organization. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition. 2018.

Food and Agriculture Organization. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy Diets. Rome: FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO; 2020.

Naser I, Abd Jalil R, Wan Muda WAM, Wan Nik WS, Mohd Shariff Z, Abdullah MR. Assessment of Food Insecurity and Nutritional Outcomes in Bachok, Kelantan. J Nut Food Sci. 2014; 05.

Chong SP, Appannah G, Sulaiman N. Household food insecurity, diet quality, and weight status among indigenous women (Mah Meri) in Peninsular Malaysia. Nutr Res Pract. 2018; 12(2): 135-42. DOI: 10.4162/nrp.2018.12.2.135

Rahman MM, Seling NR, Usop AKD. Under-five Nutritional Status and its Relationship with Household Dietary Diversity and Food Security among the Dayak Communities in Sarawak, Malaysia: Dietary diversity and nutritional status. Bangladesh Med. Res. Counc. Bull. 2022; 47(2): 127-35. DOI: 10.3329/bmrcb.v47i2.57770

Institute for Public Health. National Health and Morbidity Survey 2014 - Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS) Vol. II: Survey Findings. 2014.

Teh SC, Ali A, Jan Mohamed HJ, Mohd Yusof H. Assessment of Food Security, Anthropometric and Cognitive Function among Orang Asli Children in Pahang, Malaysia. IIUM Med. J. Malays. 2020; 19(3). DOI: 10.31436/imjm.v19i3.1669

Gahamat MF, Rahman MM, Daud MS. Nutritional Status of Under-Five Children and the Relationship with Household Food Wastage and Food Security in Samarahan, Malaysia. IIUM Med. J. Malays. 2022; 21(4). DOI: 10.31436/imjm.v21i4.2052

Stefan V, van Herpen E, Tudoran AA, Lähteenmäki L. Avoiding food waste by Romanian consumers: The importance of planning and shopping routines. Food Qual. Prefer. 2013; 28(1): 375-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.11.001

Rezaei M, Liu B. Food loss and waste in the food supply chain. Nutfruit. 2017; 71: 26-7.

Jereme I, Siwar C, Rawshan AB, Basri A. Food wastes and food security: The case of Malaysia. Int. j. adv. appl. sci. 2017; 4(8): 6-13. DOI: 10.21833/ijaas.2017.08.002

Van der Werf P, Seabrook J, Gilliland J. Food for naught: Using the theory of planned behaviour to better understand household food wasting behaviour. Can. Geogr. 2019; 63(3): 478-93. DOI: 10.1111/cag.12519

Visschers V, Wickli N, Siegrist M. Sorting out food waste behaviour: A survey on the motivators and barriers of self-reported amounts of food waste in households. J. Environ. Psychol. 2016; 45:66-78. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.11.007

Manca AR. Social Cohesion. In: Michalos A, editor. Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. p. 6026-8.

Denney J, Kimbro RT, Heck K, Cubbin C. Social Cohesion and Food Insecurity: Insights from the Geographic Research on Wellbeing (GROW) Study. Matern Child Health J. 2017; 21(2): 343-50. DOI: 10.1007/s10995-016-2119-5

Brisson D. Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Food Insecurity: A Longitudinal Study. J. Soc. Soc. Work Res. 2012; 3(4): 268-79. DOI: 10.5243/jsswr.2012.16

Cochran W. Sampling Techniques: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1977.

Hamilton W, Cook J, Thompson W, Buron L, Frongillo E, Olson C, et al. Household Food Security in the United States in 1995: Summary Report of the Food Security Measurement Project. United States Department of Agriculture; 1997.

Rahman MM, Viknesraj S, Jantan Z. Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Household Food Wastages among Villagers in Sekuau, Sibu, Sarawak. CMPH Bulletin. 2018 (5(1)): 30-9.

Aktas E, Sahin H, Topaloglu Z, Oledinma A, Huda AKS, Irani Z, et al. A consumer behavioural approach to food waste. J. Enterp. Inf. Manag. 2018; 31(5): 658-73. DOI 10.1108/JEIM-03-2018-0051

Sampson R, Raudenbush S, Earls F. Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy. Science. 1997; 277(5328): 918-24. DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5328.918

Wong LT, Rahman MM. Psychometric Evaluation of a Questionnaire for Measuring Food Waste Behaviour and Food Security at the Household Level. The Indones. j. public health. 2022; 17(2): 184-95. DOI: 10.20473/ijph.v17i2.2022.184-195

Hair J, Black W, Babin B, Anderson R. Multivariate Data Analysis. 8th edition ed: Pearson Education Inc.; 2019.

Cooper J. Introduction to Data Management: Statistical Associates Publishers; 2015.

IBM SPSS. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. 27 ed2020.

Mahalanobis PC. On the Generalized Distance in Statistics. Proceedings of the National Institute of Science of India. 1936; 2: 49-55. DOI: 10.1007/s13171-019-00164-5

Cook D. Detection of Influential Observation in Linear Regression. Technometrics. 1977; 19(1): 15-8. DOI: 10.2307/1268249

Aguinis H, Gottfredson R, Joo H. Best-Practice Recommendations for Defining, Identifying, and Handling Outliers. Organ. Res. Methods. 2013; 16(2): 270-301. DOI: 10.1177/109442811247084

Ismail MK, Vija Kumaran V, Munawwarah SN, Muhamad MZ, Sarifuddin S. COVID-19 Outbreak: An Analysis of Malaysian Household Income Class During Movement Control Orders (MCO). Asia Proceedings of Social Sciences. 2021; 39(4). DOI: 10.25115/eea.v39i4.4484

Martin K, Rogers B, Cook J, Joseph H. Social capital is associated with decreased risk of hunger. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 58(12): 2645-54. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.09.026

Carman K, Zamarro G. Does Financial Literacy Contribute to Food Security? Int. j. food agric. econom. 2016; 4(1): 1-19.

Tahir N, Sulaiman N. Factors and Coping Strategies Related to Food Insecurity and Nutritional Status Among Orang Asli Women in Malaysia. International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences. 2015; 2: 55-66.

Gahamat MF. Association Between Nutritional Status of Children Under five years old and Household Food Wastage and Food Insecurity in Samarahan Division, Sarawak, Malaysia [Master's]: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak; 2019.

Nederhof A. Methods of coping with social desirability bias: A review. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 1985; 15(3): 263-80. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2420150303