| dc.description.abstract | This study investigates the relationship between socioeconomic factors and food expenditure of households found in urban areas in Central Uganda. The study used secondary data for analysis which was from the UNHS 2016. Data analysis was done using SPSS at both univariate and bivariate levels. At the bivariate level, a chi-square test was employed to determine the statistical relationship between the dependent and independent variables that were used in the study. The dependent variable of the study was monthly household expenditure on food while the independent variables included; employment status, occupation, marital status, household size, monthly income and age of the household head.
Majority of the household heads were male (67.1%) and aged 31-60 years (62.7%) whereas a few of them were aged 91 years and above (0.2%). Nineteen percent of the households had only one member while 70% had at least three members. On the aspect of employment status, 90.2% of the household heads were working and many of them were working as service and sales workers (30.8%) while a few of them were managers (1.8%) and clerical support workers (1.3%). On the aspect of monthly income, majority of the household heads had a monthly income of below shs.500,000 (47.0%) and also had a monthly food expenditure of below shs.500,000 (83.2%).
At bivariate analysis, the findings indicated a statistically significant relationship between the age of the household head and their expenditure on food. Household heads aged 61 years and above spent almost all their monthly income on food as compared to those that were aged 30 years and below who only spent about half of their monthly income on food. The findings also showed that the size of a household is statistically significant with its expenditure on food where households with more than five people allocate a larger proportion to their food as compared to those with a few people who only spent about half of their monthly income on their food expenditure.
These results reveal the importance of considering socioeconomic factors in understanding food expenditure patterns of households since they are the major determinants as shown in the study. The study recommended that the government of Uganda should sensitize its citizens about the use and importance of scientific family planning methods, the policymakers should also consider implementing or enhancing income support programs so as to alleviate financial constraints for low-income households and also reduce the taxes imposed on the essential food items in order to reduce food costs incurred by households. | en_US |
