ABSTRACT

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This study assessed anthropometric status, eating behaviour and food security of rural women of Ikwuano Local Government Area, Abia State. A cross-sectional study design was used; data for analysis were obtained through questionnaire instrument distributed randomly to the rural women. Two hundred and seven (207) responses from the questionnaire were gathered and analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. The result showed that; 40.1% of the respondents were between 46 to 65 years, Majority 95.2% were Christians, 63.3% were 4 to 6 per in a family with secondary education, (54.6%) of the respondents were traders, (27.5% and 27.1%) of the respondents earned a household income of ₦31000-₦60,999 and ₦61,000-₦90,999 annually. Most 55.1% of the respondents ate three times in a day, the eaten pattern of the rural women 63.3% ate with others and don’t skipped breakfast, 44.9% of the rural women said not true that food they bought did not last and they did not have more money to get more food for the past 30 days, 40.6% said is never true that they could not afford to eat a balance meal for the past 30 days, 68.6% said they don’t know for the past 30 days if any member of the family cut down the size of their meals or skip meals for not have enough money to buy food. Most 30.9% of the rural women were underweight, 46.4% were normal. It was observed, there was significant (p>0.05) negative correlation between height and number of Meals eaten in a day (r = -.293^**) while there was a significant (p>0.05) negative correlation between BMI and eaten pattern (r = -.177). In conclusion, the rural women eaten habit revealed that more than half of the rural women ate at least three times in a day and were food secured through their eating habit. Therefore, the study recommends, in order to reduce burden due to income constraint, food aids intervention should be created to help the rural women to have improved health by diet diversification.