ABSTRACT
Women are mostly vulnerable on all dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization and stability. The study assessed the household food security and anthropometric status of women in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State. The study was across sectional carried out on 200 non pregnant and non-lactating women, sampled from the population of women in the Local Government Area. The study collected data using a structured questionnaire which was validated by experts from the Department of Human Nutrition. The data realized were analyzed using descriptive statistics while the association between food security and anthropometric status of the women were analyzed using chi-square. The result showed that Majority (90.0%) of the women were Christians, most (67.0%) were married, and more than half (52.0) had only secondary education. The food security status of the women showed that more than half (58.0%) of the women were food secure. On anthropometry, almost half (47.1%) of the women were overweight while many (37.7%) were obese. On WHR, more than half (57.2%) were at moderate risk of obesity and 30.4% were at high risk of obesity. Finally the result showed a significant (P<0.05) association between food security status of the women and their anthropometric status (X2= 78.90, P = 0.00). The study concluded that women in Ikeduru L.G.A even though food secure are suffering from over nutrition which led to the recommendation that nutrition education need to focus on proper utilization of food so as to maximize the nutrient in the foods that have higher nutritive value and are prepared in the correct manner to improve bioavailability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of contents v
List of table viii
Abstract x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Statement
of Problems 5
1.2 Objective
of the Study 6
1.3 Significance
of the Study 6
CHAPTER 2:
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Concept
of Food Security 8
2.2 Dimensions of Food Security 10
2.2.1 Food Security from pillars to pathways 11
2.2.2 Linking Food Security to Sustainability 13
2.3 Definition of Food Insecurity 14
2.3.1 Relationships between Food Security and Food
Insecurity 15
2.4 Indicators for Global Food Security 15
2.4.1 Indicators for measuring food security at the
household level 17
2.5 Women in National Economy 18
2.6 The
Role of Women in Household Food Security 20
2.6.1 Roles of Women in Economic Development in Nigeria 22
2.6.2 Benefits of economic empowerment of women 24
2.7
Anthropometric Indices 25
CHAPTER
3: MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Study
Design 30
3.2 Study Area 30
3.3 Population of the Study 31
3.4 Sampling and Sampling Techniques 31
3.4.1 Sample size 31
3.4.2 Sampling procedure 32
3.5 Preliminary
Activities 33
3.5.1 Preliminary visit 33
3.5.2 Training of research assistants 33
3.5.3 Informed Consent 34
3.6 Data Collection 34
3.6.1 Questionnaire administration 34
3.6.2
Interview 34
3.6.3 Anthropometric
measurements 35
3.6.4
Assessment of Food Security 37
3.7 Data Analysis 37
3.8 Statistical Analysis 38
CHAPTER
4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Personal and Socio-Economic
Characteristics of the Women 39
4.2 Food Security Status of the Women 43
4.3 Anthropometric
Status of the Women 46
4.4 Association between Personal and Socio-Economic
Status Of The
Women And Their Food
Security Status 48
4.5 Association
Between Food Security Status of The Women
And Their
Anthropometric Status 50
CHAPTER
5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion 53
5.2 Recommendations 53
Reference 55
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table 4.1a Showing results for the
personal and socio-economic characteristics of the women
Table 4.1b Showing results for the
personal and socio-economic characteristics of the women
Table 4.2 Showing
results for the food security indicators of the women
Table 4.2b Overall
Food security level of the women
Table 4.3 Showing
results for the anthropometric status of the women
Table
4.4 association between food security and anthropometric status of the women
Table 4.5 Association
between the food security status of the women and their food security status
Table 4.6 Relationship
between food security status and anthropometric status of the women
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
One of the most challenging issues in the
world today is how to provide sufficient food to more than seven billion people
around the globe. Food security is a complex, multifaceted concept usually
influenced by culture, environment and geographical location (Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2019). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations gave a clear definition of “food security at five different
levels (individual, household, national, region and global) as “when all
people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and
nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for active and
healthy life” (Simon, 2012; FAO, 2017). The United Nations (UN) in September
2015 at its General Assembly adopted the resolution of the agenda for
sustainable development and the resolution led to the formation of 17 goals referred
to as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2017). The Sustainable
Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) as one of the food security-goals, was set to
address the importance of food security and nutrition within the wider agenda,
and calls member States to “end hunger, achieve food security and improve
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” by 2030 (UN, 2017;
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, 2017; Otekunrin and Sawicka,
2019). In 2019, it was revealed that close to 690 million (8.9% percent world
population) people are estimated to be undernourished globally. This showed
that the number of hungry people continued to rise steadily since 2014 and
projected to increase to 841.4 (9.8 percent) million where Africa will have
51.5% (433.2 million) share, the highest number of undernourished people
globally by 2030 (FAO et al., 2020).
Food insecurity in Nigeria is currently at
alarming rate calling for urgent and immediate intervention. In 2018, Nigeria
overtook India to become the world poverty capital with the highest number of
populations living in extreme poverty reached 86.9 million (Otekunrin et
al., 2019). It is quite alarming that the poverty situation in Nigeria is
increasing. As of 2020, 102.4 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty
implying that an additional 15.5 million Nigerians have plunged into poverty in
24 months (Oyinloye et al., 2018). The precarious state of acute food
insecurity in Nigeria is occasioned by chronic and hidden hunger, extreme
poverty, corruption, conflict events and unfavorable climate change (Babatunde et
al., 2019).
Human body needs a proper
nutrition through well balanced diet to fulfill body requirements and to
maintain basic body physiology. Improper nutrition leads to the consumption of
excess calorie (over-nutrition) or insufficient supply of one or more essential
nutrients (under-nutrition). Over-nutrition is a threat that increases body
weight and causes several non-communicable diseases. On the other,
undernutrition, caused due to the insufficient intake of energy and nutrients,
is a serious health problem for the economically backward, developing countries
like Nigeria (Onis et
al.,2016). It causes nutrition
related complications, different deficiency diseases and even death by
decreasing body immunity. The short-term effect of undernutrition is weakness
and recurring illness. Whereas, in the long run it hampers all vital functions
causing low weight, growth retardation of children and adolescent, decreased
immunity leading to recurring infections (Hoet, 2017), occurrence of chronic diseases
like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and coronary heart diseases in later
adult life and impaired mental development. Furthermore, in women, undernutrition
may cause obstetric complications leading to maternal and infant mortality and
increases the probability to give low birth weight babies and thus leading to
the undernutrition cycle to start again, spanning several generations (Rotimi et al., 2018).
Anthropometry has a long
tradition of assessing nutritional and health status of adults as this is an
inexpensive, non-invasive method that provides detailed information on
different components of body structure, especially muscular and fat components
(Kuruvilla et al., 2016). Moreover, anthropometric measurements are
highly sensitive to the broad spectrum of nutritional status, whereas
biochemical and clinical indicators are useful only at extremes of
malnutrition. Among the widely used anthropometric measurements, body mass
index (BMI) and mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC) are most significant and
reliable (Ogunkunle and Oludele, 2016).
Food insecurity at the household or
individual level may be short term and this results from a temporary limited
access to food. Food insecurity occurs in mild, moderate and severe forms and
the level of food insecurity may be related to the relative availability of
food (Latham, 2016). The causes of food insecurity vary from one country to the
other and also by region. Poverty (not food availability) is the major driver
of food insecurity. Improvements in agricultural productivity are necessary to
increase rural household incomes and access to available food but are
insufficient to ensure food security. However, (Grosvenor and Smolin, 2017;
Babatunde et al., 2019) identified other factors like unequal
distribution of wealth, rapid population growth, rapid depletion of natural
resources/ climate change, under-employment and low incomes, lack of education
and unwise investment of funds, demand for food which is greater than supply
and inequitable food distribution, rapid urbanization, traditional customs,
social conditions, attitudes and services, civil strife/political disruptions,
health status and access to health care, vulnerable populations and access to
food and education.
The issue of food security has been on the
front burner for long and statements about several countries in Africa that are
food insecure.
1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Food security is a basic human need and
fighting hunger is one of the greatest challenges of this century. (Ojo and
Adebayo, 2018). Although the number of people living in hunger has declined for
many years, in 2015 it has started to increase again (FAO et al., 2019).
Today, two billion people are still living in moderate or severe food
insecurity, because they do not have regular access to food, lack of quality
food, or there is not enough food for the whole population available. A total
of 820 Million of these two billion facing food insecurity are living in hunger
(FAO et al., 2019). Particularly in developing countries, people cannot
meet their nutritional needs (Oyinloye et al., 2018).
Women are vulnerable on
all dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization and
stability (united nations, 2014). They
suffer the most from macro- and micronutrient deficiencies, especially during
reproductive years, with long-term negative development impacts for society as
a whole (FAO, 2020).
Food-price spikes have negative repercussions for female household heads. They
suffer labor market discrimination, which confines them to informal and casual
employment, as well as pay inequity. Also, they frequently spend a bigger share
of their family budget on food than male heads of household (De Schutter, 2018).
According
to the World Health Organization (2016), there are around 2 billion adults that
are overweight, of those 650 million are considered to be affected by obesity
(BMI ≥30 kg/m²). That equates to 39% (39% of men and 40% of women) of adults
aged 18 or over who were overweight, with 13% obese (Bray, 2017).About 12 million persons in
Nigeria were estimated to be obese in 2020, with prevalence considerably higher
among women. This is marked in urban Nigeria and among women, which may in part
be due to widespread sedentary lifestyles and a surge in processed food
outlets, largely reflective of a trend across many African settings (Davies et al., 2021).
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this study is to
assess the food security and anthropometric status of women in Ikeduru Local
Government Area of Imo State. The specific objectives are to:
1.
Assess the personal and
socio-economic characteristics of the women.
2.
Determine the food security
status of the women.
3.
Ascertain the anthropometric
status of the women.
4.
Evaluate the association
between food security and anthropometric status of the women.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Results from this research will not only
contribute to existing academic literature but can be used by Ikeduru LGA,
researchers, policy makers, and other relevant stake holders to develop and
implement strategies that can uplift the lives of women within Ikeduru, Imo
state. It will also be of interest to health practitioners, nurses, doctors,
and educationist by providing them with information on the effects of food
security on women. It will indicate health and nutritional related problems
that are associated with household food security and their possible solution.
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