Food Insecurity and Its Association with Nutritional Status among Women of Reproductive Age Group in Noakhali District, Bangladesh

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate food insecurity and its association with nutritional status among women ofreproductive age group in Noakhali District, BangladeshStudy design: It is a Cross-sectional study in nature.Methods:This study was a primary analysis of 400 reproductive aged women with a structured questionnaire.We carried out frequency tabulation, binary and multivariate logistic regression of study variables to achievethe study objective.Results: Prevalence of HFIAS was 66.30 with 11.00%, 41.8%, and 13.5% mild, moderate, and severefood insecurity, respectively and underweight prevalence (BMI 20000taka (AOR =0.034, 95% CI: 0.004-0.2999) had less odds of food insecurity. When the household headwere businessman, respondents had less odds of food insecurity (AOR =0.184, 95% CI: 0.037, 0.912).This result has shown that 30–39-year-old women (AOR =0.353; 95% CI: 0.181, 0.686) and more than 40years old women had less odds (AOR =0.371; 95% CI: 0.176, 0.783) of underweight. Respondents withhad completed SSC and higher level of education had less chance (AOR =0.273; 95% CI: 0.101, 0.741)of being underweight. Women those were from severe food insecurity households were more likely to beunderweight (AOR =1.595, 95% CI: 0.789, 3.226).Conclusions: Effort should be made to provide essential social services such as education and healthpromotion intervention to overcome the immediate consequence of food insecurity and under nutritionwhich will help to defeat the current condition and will help to achieve active and healthy life.