According to Holben et al. (A-22), “Food insecurity implies a limited access to or availability of food or a limited/uncertain ability to acquire food in socially acceptable ways.” These researchers collected data on 297 families with a child in the Head Start nursery program in a rural area of Ohio near Appalachia. The main outcome variable of the study was household status relative to food security. Households that were not food secure are considered to be cases. The risk factor of interest was the absence of a garden from which a household was able to supplement its food supply. In the following table, the data are stratified by the head of household’s employment status outside the home.
Stratum 1 (Employed Outside the Home)
Risk Factor Cases Noncases Total No garden 40 37 77 Garden 13 38 51 Total 53 75 128 Stratum 2 (Not Employed Outside the Home)
Risk Factor Cases Noncases Total No garden 75 38 113 Garden 15 33 48 Total 90 71 161 Source: Data provided courtesy of David H. Holben, Ph.D. and John P. Holcomb, Jr., Ph.D.
Compute the Mantel–Haenszel common odds ratio with stratification by employment status. Use the Mantel–Haenszel chi-square test statistic to determine if we can conclude that there is an association between the risk factor and food insecurity. Let a ¼ .05.