rural) and household-level wealth quintiles ( UNICEF and WHO 2021), such that we lack data on disparities in physical water availability or water infrastructure by household characteristics (e.g., size) or individual characteristics (e.g., gender, age, employment status). For example, global indicators of drinking water access have not been disaggregated beyond subnational regions (e.g., urban vs.

Although the IWISE-4 Scale cannot measure the severity of water insecurity, the IWISE-4 provides suitable and cross-country equivalent estimates of the prevalence of individual water insecurity.Īlthough these data and regular headlines suggest a global water crisis, there is a noted absence in high-resolution data about who is experiencing water insecurity ( High-Level Panel on Water 2018). An IWISE-4 cut-point of ≥4 provided the closest approximation of water insecurity prevalence as predicted by the IWISE-12 scale (cut-point ≥12), correctly classifying 87.1–98.5% of adults across countries, and was similarly associated with water quality dissatisfaction, a measure of construct validity. Receiver operating characteristic curves showed that the IWISE-4 (range 0–12) predicted individual water insecurity with ≥95% accuracy in every country. We used data from adults in 31 low- and middle-income countries ( n=43,970) to assess internal consistency, cross-country equivalence, predictive accuracy, and construct validity of the IWISE-4. Herein, we tested the validity of an analogous four-item version of the Individual Water Insecurity Experiences Scale (IWISE-4) for measuring the prevalence of individual water insecurity when limited resources prevent implementation of the IWISE-12 Scale. A 4-item, 1-minute version of the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE-4) Scale has proven useful for understanding the prevalence of household water insecurity experiences when limited resources preclude the use of the HWISE-12 Scale. The 12-item Water Insecurity Experiences Scales provide high resolution, cross-context equivalent data on household and individual water insecurity.

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