Household Food Insecurity and Its Characteristics in Korea
Title
Household Food Insecurity and Its Characteristics in Korea
Author(s)
김기랑
; 김미경
; 신영전
Keyword
식품 미보장
; 식품 보장
; 취약 계층
; 식품 지원 서비스
; Food Insecurity
; Food Security
; Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Households
; Food Assistance Programs
Publication Year
2009-12-31
Publisher
Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs
Citation
Health and Social Welfare Review Vol.29 No.2, pp.268-292
Abstract
Recently, food insecurity has arisen as an issue in Korean society because of the limited access to food particularly for the socioeconomically disadvantaged population. Thus, this study aims to investigate the prevalence of food insecurity and its characteristics, using the third waves of Korean Welfare Panel Data. The prevalence of food insecurity was 5.4%, relatively lower than in advanced Western countries. The prevalence of food insecurity varied significantly across household types and householder's characteristics. The socioeconomically disadvantaged households had a 13% to 27% higher prevalence of food insecurity. The households headed by women, elderly, unemployed person, or people with low education level, chronic disease or disability, were more likely to be food insecure. The food insecure households had low participation in food assistance programs (7.6% total households, 16.4% for elderly households, 56.9% for households with children) and among the households participating in food assistance programs, the prevalence of food insecurity was 29.3% for total households, 45.7% for elderly households, 13.1% for households with children. In conclusion, the problem of food insecurity was apparent in socioeconomically disadvantaged households and elderly households, In addition, the access to food assistance programs for these households was low and the programs' effect was modest. Further, the trend of food insecurity needs to investigate to provide evidence for developing a food policy related to food insecurity, using persistent monitoring and longitudinal analysis through the Korean Welfare Panel Study.