Clay, LaurenKoyratty, NadiaJosephson, AnnaShanks, Carmen Byker2025-01-222025-01-222023Clay, Lauren, Nadia Koyratty, Anna Josephson, and Carmen Byker Shanks. Validating the Disaster Food Security Scale for Rural U.S. Populations. Accessed December 11, 2024. https://hazards.colorado.edu/public-health-disaster-research/validating-the-disaster-food-security-scale-for-rural-u-s-populations.http://hdl.handle.net/11603/37388Although there is a large body of evidence on food security and food systems, similar research is limited in disaster settings. Rural areas are especially at risk for adverse disaster consequences. The goal of this project is to validate the Disaster Food Security Scale (DFSS) for rural populations. Rural population-specific validation is needed to ensure that the scale reliably measures barriers to food security in rural populations, which may have different concerns and issues during disasters when compared to the general or non-rural populations. To validate the DFSS-Rural, the DFSS survey was administered to a national U.S. sample of households that recall a disaster in their community in the past five years. Survey data were analyzed for validity and non-rural and rural populations were compared. The disaster food security construct created through the scale development process was unidimensional allowing the administration and scoring of a single composite scale to capture multiple aspects of food security in a disaster context. The DFSS scale measures food security disruption from a systems perspective, and therefore, identifies where a disruption is occurring in the food system chain and can provide information for public health and emergency management officials, communities, and community service organizations about specific opportunities for intervention to improve food security and improve health outcomes.22 pagesen-USThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.food securityfood systempublic healthText