Abstract
Studies done in various states in Nigeria have shown alarming rates of food insecurity among the population. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity among different wealth groups in Uyo metropolis, in southern Nigeria and to determine compensatory feeding patterns engaged in by studied food insecure households. This was a cross sectional descriptive study carried out among 249 households of different wealth groups based on the occupational status and educational attainment of the household heads. Data was collected using interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20 with a 0.05 level of significance. The prevalence of food insecurity among surveyed households was 89.9% with food insecure 26.5% (without hunger), 30.5% (moderate hunger) and 32.9% (severe hunger). Marital status, socioeconomic class, household size and household income all had statistically significant relationships with food security status (p7 suffered food insecurity with severe hunger. Regarding household income, 48.9% of households with income less than 50,000 naira per month, were food insecure with severe hunger (p<0.05). Coping strategies engaged in by food insecure households included borrowing money from friends, 33.7%, collecting food from friends 26.1% and sending children to work, 8.8%. There was high prevalence of food insecurity among studied households. It is recommended that better educational opportunities be made available to those of the low socioeconomic class, so as to ensure gainful employment. Minimum wage in Nigeria should be increased to ensure increased household income.
Highlights
Food insecurity is a great challenge to the policy makers and the world nations due to the huge increase in the human population across the whole world
Up to 30.5% of the households belonged to class 4 socioeconomic class. (Table 1)
This results in a widespread reduction in household income which would in turn affect the household food security status
Summary
Food insecurity is a great challenge to the policy makers and the world nations due to the huge increase in the human population across the whole world. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that over 800million (10.9%) of the world’s population currently suffer from chronic under-nutrition. Food insecurity is closely linked with hunger and poverty; and over 700 million people live under conditions of extreme poverty i.e., earning less than US$1 per day [5,6,7,8]. A number of factors such as income, gender, educational level of heads of households, geographical location and household sizes are known to affect household food security, as they directly affect economic access and the sustenance of such access [9,10]
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