en Epidemiology Epidemiology Original Research Original Research <strong>Background: </strong>Food insecurity as a major public health problem has associations with a wide range of adverse consequences on health and quality of life. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among Iranian households, its key socio-economic risk factors and population attributable risk via a large-scale cross-sectional study in the capital of Iran.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Methods:</strong> This cross-sectional study was performed among 30,809 households with complete questionnaires of food security, during 2011. The univariate test was used to investigate the association between economic status and covariates with household food insecurity. Multiple logistic regression model was used to assess the independent effect of economic status on household food insecurity.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Results:</strong> Totally, 37.8% (95% CI: 37.25, 38.34%) of the households were food insecure. There were significant associations between economic status and household food insecurity after adjustment for other variables (p-value<0.001). The extent of household food insecurity that could be attributed to the economic status in the 1st and 2nd quintiles (poorest and poor households), compared with the 5th quintile (richest households), was estimated to be 48.43% and 60.12%, respectively.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Food insecurity is relatively prevalent among households in Tehran. Economic status was identified as the most significant determinant of household food security, as 62.7% of poorest households were food insecure. Therefore, there is a crucial need to address food insecurity as a priority in food policies.<br> &nbsp;<br> &nbsp; Food insecurity, Risk factor, Population attributable risk, Socio-economic status 715 721 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1510-6&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mohsen Asadi-Lari Mohsen.asadi@yahoo.com 200319475328460062340 200319475328460062340 No Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health & Oncopathology Research Centre, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Leila Moosavi Jahromi ll_moosavi@yahoo.com 200319475328460062341 200319475328460062341 No Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Montazeri montazeri@acecr.ac.ir 200319475328460062342 200319475328460062342 No Health Metrics Research Centre, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, Tehran, Iran Nazila Rezaee nazila_r@yahoo.com 200319475328460062343 200319475328460062343 No Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Asghar Haeri Mehrizi haeri.stat@gmail.com 200319475328460062344 200319475328460062344 No Health Metrics Research Center, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran Mehran Shams-Beyranvand mehran.shams.b@gmail.com 200319475328460062345 200319475328460062345 No Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran & School of Medicine, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran Mohamad-Reza Vaez-Mahdavi vaezmahdavi@shahed.ac.ir 200319475328460062346 200319475328460062346 No Department of Physiology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran َAbbas Abbasi-Ghahramanloo abbasi.abbas49@yahoo.com 200319475328460062347 200319475328460062347 No Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Maryam Khazaee-Pool khazaie_m@yahoo.com 200319475328460062348 200319475328460062348 No Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Ali Ghanbari a.ghanbari541@gmail.com 200319475328460062349 200319475328460062349 No Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute & Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Gholami aagholami80@yahoo.com 200319475328460062350 200319475328460062350 Yes Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center & Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences, Neyshabur, Iran