Methods and Metrics for Food Security and Nutrition Outcome Indicators

Further iterations of the concept over time incorporated the dimension of food utilization into the FS concept to capture factors that influence food consumption and biological utilization of nutrients at the household and individual levels. [...] The framework organizes the four key pillars of food security according to the national/subnational/community, household and individual levels, which correspond to the basic, underlying and immediate causes of malnutrition, respectively. [...] According to the framework, a person’s nutritional status is influenced by the food utilization pillar, which at the individual level is a function of food consumption (energy and nutrients), and the person’s health status that permits optimal biological utilization of food. [...] Malnutrition metrics in adolescents Due to the variable timing of the pubertal growth spurt, the indices of weight and height in relation to age, i.e., the use of a Body Mass Index (BMI), is of little value for the assessment of nutritional status in this age group. [...] This indicator gives the level of adequacy of iodine in the diet, as most of the iodine absorbed by the body is excreted in the urine.