FOOD CONSUMPTION, KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF FOOD SELECTION AMONG MOTHERS IN UMUAHIA METROPOLIS

  CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Malnutrition has continued to be a problem of public health significance in low and middle income countries of the world, including Nigeria. Malnutrition in different forms occurs globally; however, the toll is worse in the rural areas of the least developed and developing countries and on the most vulnerable groups of women and children       (Ene-obong et al., 2017). Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers two broad groups of conditions. One is ‘undernutrition’—which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals). The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer) (Word Health Organization, 2020). Nutritional knowledge affects the quality of food intake and also healthy choices of purchased food. Advancement of individual nutrition knowledge provides new information which may stimulate changing of attitude and subsequently result in enhancement of dietary practices (Mirsanjar et al., 2012). Food consumption behaviour however, is complex and focusing on single food or nutrients does not take into account the complexity of food-consumption patterns and their multidimensional nature (Al-Shookri et al., 2011).

In Nigeria, women are usually responsible for producing and preparing food for the household, so their knowledge of good nutrition or lack of it can affect the health and nutritional status of the entire family. Food and Agricultural Organization. (2014) reported that Women occupy a central place in subsistence agricultural production. They are responsible for 80% of agricultural production. Unfortunately, gender disparities in access to agricultural resources and services negatively impact their productivity and consequently, the food and nutrition security of their household. They are responsible for the selection and preparation of food, care and feeding of their families, and the supply of labour needed to produce food for consumption and for sale (FAO, 2011; Ibnouf, 2011).

Nutrition education as one of the important practical aspects of food consumption and nutrition knowledge play an important role in raising public awareness and ultimately the health of a society. Current approaches to increase nutritional knowledge and attitude tends to focus on familiarizing people with important terms emphasizing reduction in intake of certain nutrients and focusing on certain foods which should be reducing intake of certain foods.

To put a good understanding of nutrition into practice, the consumer must be able to cope with issues such as quantities of food needed for maintenance of health (Oguntatona et al., 2006). Manton. (2007) stressed the importance of nutritional knowledge and emphasized that an abundance of food does not in itself guarantee that it would be well nourished but how good is been selected from the food group. Nutrition knowledge is positively associated with more diversified diets and healthy eating attitudes and practices. Individuals with higher levels of nutrition knowledge were also more likely to reject harmful food taboos (Melesse and Berg, 2020). It's important to also note that some people are allergic to certain foods despite their nutritive value, and so, people avoid foods which they react to in one way or the other (Inardlaw et al., 2004). Mothers have been shown to be predominate caregivers for children. The causes of malnutrition in children can be summerized as both behavioural and resources related. Behavioural which include the mother's knowledge, attitude and practices towards feeding coupled with poor environmental sanitation and infectious diseases are the immediate causes, while the resources related causes are household poverty and adequate health care. Knowledge of food nutrition facilitates a selection of adequate diet. Unfortunately there is a wide spread ignorance of the nutritional and health benefits of our locally available food leading to faulty food selection and habits (Ene-Obong, 2001). Most people eat what they like because it is a norm or out of habit. Their selection of food is influenced by the awareness of the nutritive values. Few people know the way the body utilizes food. It is necessary to understand that a delicious food is not necessary a nutritious one (Shubhangini, 2002).

1.1       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In Nigeria, there are varieties of food items from which people can make their food choices from. Adult mostly choose what they eat, but food preferences play an important role in their food choices and food consumption. The critical problem of rural mothers is the lack of nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of food value, selection and preparation, which is the inability to combine calories and select adequate diet (Annger, 2004). Poor or bad food consumption lead to diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, scurvy, stroke, heart diseases, kidney disorder and these diseases and physiological changes makes people feel hopeless about the lack of control over food choices (Donatella, 2005).

Poor families tend to select low quality food that cost less. Because of poverty and exclusion, the most disadvantage children face the greatest risk of all form of malnutrition with the following indicators: Stunting, wasting, underweight, overweight (UNICEF, 2019) this is because rural households are not selecting the right food commodities as choices especially the household of low socio-economic status and internally displaced people as reported on the media are most significant since the economic recession became apparent in Nigeria in 2016 (Mbah and Azubuike, 2017). According to the Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition, 35% of the disease burden in children under five years of age and 11% of the total (global) disease burden, measured as disability-adjusted life years, have maternal and child nutrition as their underlying causes. Undernutrition is a risk factor for about 50 to 70% of the burden of diarrheal diseases, measles, malaria and lower respiratory infections in childhood (Sholeye et al., 2016).

Many ethnical groups, cultural belief, religious belief and socioeconomic factors influence food selection and consumption. Restricting the consumption of food items can affect the health and nutrition of mothers, particularly as women are already nutritionally vulnerable. Less is known about food consumption pattern and practice of food selection and what factors are related to the practice of food selection among mothers such as actual nutritional needs and multi factorial on food selection, food intake and food consumption are not clear. The implication is that households having individuals and people with specific diet needs are not able to balance daily food consumption practices in their respective families because they may lack inspiration or knowledge about, how and or what to eat. More so, poor food choices and high prices of food especially at this economic recession influence the quality and quantity of food consumed (Mbah and Azubuike, 2017). Mothers need to have good nutrition and food consumption knowledge and practice of food selection because lack of appropriate nutrition practice will affect them, the whole family, and society at large; therefore the need for the study.

1.2       OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1.2.1    General objective

The general objective of this study is to assess the food consumption, knowledge and practice of food selection among mothers in Umuahia Metropolis.

1.2.2    Specific objective

The specific objective of this study is to

1.     Assess the socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics of mother's

2.     Assess the general Nutrition knowledge of mothers

3.     Determine the food consumption pattern among mothers using food frequency questionnaire

4.     Determine the practice of food selection among mothers in rural and urban areas

5.     Determine the relationship between food consumption and nutritional knowledge of mothers.

1.3       SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

The result of this study will disclose information on the food consumption knowledge and practice of food selection among mothers in rural and urban areas of Abia State. This study will provide information to the government, society, schools and many other non-governmental organizations in planning and making adequate arrangement for the well-being of the Nigerian mothers. Additionally, the research findings will form a baseline data which the community nutritionist, dietitians, home economist and other clinicians will use to educate the others on healthy feeding habits and for suggesting plans for improving nutritional and food consumption knowledge and practice of food selection through adjustment and moderation. It will also form a reference tool for students seeking to carry out research on this topic or related topics.

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