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A valid two-item food security questionnaire for screening HIV-1 infected patients in a clinical setting
Jessica Young1, Sarangapany Jeganathan, Louise Houtzager
1Albion Street Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, 150-154 Albion Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
Objective:
To validate a two-item food security questionnaire (FSQ) for use in a clinical setting to screen HIV-1 infected patients for food insecurity.
Design:
The present study was a questionnaire-based survey of forty-nine subjects attending an HIV clinic. Subjects completed a two-item questionnaire and a six-item validated FSQ contemporaneously.
Results:
A strong correlation was found between the two-item and six-item FSQ (rho = 0.895; 95 % CI 0.821, 0.940; P < 0.0001). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.94 and 0.90 for the two-item and six-item FSQ, respectively. The two-item FSQ yielded a sensitivity of 100 % (95 % CI 75, 100) and a specificity of 78 % (95 % CI 61, 90). The negative predictive value was found to be 100 % (95 % CI 88, 100).
Conclusions:
The results of the present study suggest that the two-item FSQ is a valid, reliable and sensitive screening tool of food insecurity in people living with HIV in a clinical setting.
