Household Hunger Scale

Outcome

Impact

median Household Hunger Scale score of the targeted households

The Household Hunger Scale (HHS), developed by FANTA, measures the severity of household hunger by capturing concrete experiences of extreme food deprivation over the previous 30 days. Using standardized questions drawn from the HFIAS, it provides cross-culturally comparable estimates of the prevalence of little/no hunger, moderate hunger, and severe hunger across places and over time. HHS focuses on the quantity dimension of food access (not dietary quality) and should be used only in areas with very high levels of food insecurity. HHS data can support situation analysis, targeting, and monitoring.

Determine the indicator's value by using the methodology described in detail in FANTA’s very practical and easy-to-use Household Hunger Scale Guide. The main steps involve:

 

1) Conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of your target household representatives, asking them:

   > three “occurrence” questions representing an increasing severity of food insecurity

   > three “frequency-of-occurrence” questions that are asked as a follow-up to each occurrence question to determine how often the situation occurred (rarely, sometimes, often)

These questions, alongside all details on their use, are described in the HHS Guide.

 

2) Calculating the score for each household by summing up the scores for each frequency-of-occurrence question as described in the HHS Guide.

 

3) To determine the indicator’s value, calculate the median (not average) value of the individual households’ scores. To calculate the median:

• Order the individual HHS scores from lowest to highest.

• Find the score that falls in the middle of all the household scores when they are arranged from lowest to highest. This is the median value that represents the household hunger status for the target population.

Disaggregate the data by gender of the head of household, geographical area, population groups, wealth and other relevant criteria, provided the sample size is sufficient to ensure reliable representation.

1) Take maximum advantage of all the guidance provided by FANTA’s Household Hunger Scale Guide.

 

2) The indicator may be reported either as a median score (range 0 – 6) or by using categories showing the percentage of households experiencing moderate or severe hunger. Both formats are valid and methodologically appropriate. The median score is useful for tracking changes over time (for example within a project), while the categorical version is easier to interpret and is widely used by humanitarian actors including WFP and USAID/BHA. Choose the presentation format that best fits your project’s reporting and decision‑making needs.

3) The use of the median is recommended because the distribution of HHS scores is generally skewed, meaning that the median provides a more accurate representation of the central tendency than the mean.

4) The HHS indicator is most appropriate for areas affected by very high levels of food insecurity. The HFIAS indicator, in contrast, can be used both in areas of low and high food insecurity.

 

5) Since HHS focuses on the household lived consequences of food inaccessibility and does not measure dietary quality or adequate micronutrient intake, consider also including the measurement of individual dietary diversity in your survey, using some of the following indicators:

• Individual Dietary Diversity Score

• Minimum Dietary Diversity - Women

• Minimum Dietary Diversity - Children

• Food Consumption Score

 

6) The data required for this indicator is prone to seasonal variations. Therefore, if you use HHS for measuring your intervention’s impact, the data has to be collected at the same time of the year.

 

7) Do not pick and choose HHS questions for inclusion or exclusion from the questionnaire, because it is the set of HHS questions together - not the use of each HHS question independently - that has been validated as a meaningful measure of household food deprivation.

 

8) Because the HHS questions cover more sensitive topics, it is recommended that they are asked at the end of the relevant portion of the questionnaire.

 

9) According to the HHS Guide, the HHS indicator has been specifically developed and validated for cross-cultural use. Its results are therefore comparable across different cultures and settings.