Food security status and awareness of Sustainable Development Goal-2 among households in Abuja Municipal Area Council
Date
2023-07
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Federal University of Technology, Owerri
Abstract
With the recent covid-19 pandemic, hunger and malnutrition have increased worldwide, with sub– Saharan Africa being the most affected. This study was carried out to determine the food security status and awareness of sustainable Development Goal - 2 among households in Abuja Municipal Area Council, an urban area in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Using a descriptive crosssectional study design, four hundred and twenty-one (421) households were randomly selected from the various wards in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Abuja. Structured questionnaire and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) as well as the Food Consumption Score (FCS) were the tools used in gathering the information needed for the study. Respondents from the sampled households were domestic heads of households, multistage sampling technique was used and data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and Chisquare using SPSS statistics version 23. From the results gotten, food security status among households in Abuja Municipal Area Council is poor (37%) as most of the households were food insecure (63%). Also, there was poor awareness of SDG-2 as seen among respondents (57%), only 43% of the respondents have heard about SDG-2. There was also significant association of sociodemographic characteristics of respondents and food security in the study area (P≤0.05). Food security was highest in respondents who were satisfied with their monthly income 17 (85%), followed by those who had a family size of two 33 (65%) and least among those who had no occupation 1(3%). Moreso, the most food insecure were those who had no occupation 33 (97%). However, food security was also higher among the able bodied 138(43%) male respondents 89(47%) who were Islam 93(41%) and were within the age bracket of 32 – 41 years 67(46%) and were also married 101(49%). Food security was also higher among most of them who achieved tertiary as their highest level of education 38(51%) and are public/civil servant 47(52%). The food consumption score of the participants was shown to be 21 (poor), 33 (borderline) and 36 (acceptable) for the < 3 days, 3-4 days and 5days and above respectively. As household coping strategies against food insecurity, majority of the participants occasionally eat once a day 294(70%), followed by allowing children to eat first 220(52%), with the least being reducing the number of meals eaten in one day 149(35%). However, most of them never sold their assets 183 (43%) nor engaged in illegal income activities (theft, smuggling, prostitution) as a coping strategy 325(77%). The study emphasized that stakeholders should promote nutrition training and socio-economic status, especially for domestic heads of households, in order to improve household nutrition-related knowledge, thereby enhancing the food security of the households. It also recommends that family planning methods should be used more by couples so as to maintain small family sizes, hence promoting more food secure households.
Description
This thesis is for the award of Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Keywords
Food security, domestic head of household, food consumption score (FCS), household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS), Department of Public Health
Citation
Njoku, S. C. (2023). Food security status and awareness of Sustainable Development Goal-2 among households in Abuja Municipal Area Council (Unpublished Master's Thesis). Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria .