| dc.description.abstract | Food security is having at all times physical access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs
for a productive healthy life. The amount, availability and quality of food affect child’s health.
Food insecurity is a serious public health problem because it is tightly linked with adverse
health outcomes. This study aimed at assessing the effect of food security on child health in
Oogoria Village in Kumi Subcouty, Kumi District. Data was collected using a pretested
Questionnaire. The study population was children under the five years and the respondents were mothers of these children. A sample of 60 households with children under-five years
was selected using Systematic sampling. Food security was measured using a scale of 8
questions where respondents were asked following their food consumption in the past 12
months before the survey. Those who affirmed 0-2 questions were Food secure and those who
affirmed 3- 8 questions were Food Insecure. Socio-Economic and Demographic variables
like Education level, Average monthly income in the household, mothers age and marital
status were used and their relationship with food security was measured. Child Health was
measured using illness in children, malnutrition and under-five mortality. Data was collected
and analyzed using STATA-15 at Univariate and Bivariate level. Also Chi-squared was used
at 5% level of significance during the Bivariate Analysis. It was found that majority of the
households (66.7%) were Food insecure, and only 33.3% were food secure. Additionally, 40
of mothers had attained Secondary Education, 31.7% had Primary, 16.7 % had Tertiary
Education and those with No Education were only 11.7%. Nearly half of the mothers (48.3%)
had monthly income below 500,000, those who earn 500,000-1,000,000 were found to be
23.3%, those who earn 1,000,001-2,000,000 were 16.7% and above 2,000,000 were only
11.7%. Majority of the mothers (71.7%) were married and only 28.3% were single. The
proportion of mother’s age was 66.7%, 16.7%, 8.3% for 21-30, 31-36, 15-20 and 35-40 years
respectively. Overall the prevalence of malnutrition was at 45%, under-five mortality was at
20% and majority of the children ,78.3% had suffered illness in the past one month, prior to
the survey. Of the 40 food insecure households, 57.5% had malnourished children and 87.3%
had been ill in the past 30 days. It was found that Food Security had an association with
Education Level and Income level. (P=0.033, P=0.00 respectively) but had no association
with mothers’ age and marital status(P> 0.05). There was a significant relationship between
food security and Malnutrition and illness but no relationship between food security and
under-five mortality in the Children, P=0.006, P=0.015 and P= 0.171 respectively. The study
recommends creation of efforts to reduce food insecurity in Oogoria Village since this helps
to reduce cases of malnutrition and illness in children, and improves child health | en_US |
