ABSTRACT

Women ofreproductive age in Ikwuano LGA are vulnerable due to their increased nutrients need. Due to this, inadequate nutrient intake among women ofreproductive age and other micronutrient deficiencies has remained prevalent in developing countries. Based on this, study specifically assessed socio demographic characteristics ofthe respondents, food frequency and the body mass index of women of reproductive age, evaluated the relationship between socio- measurements. Multistage and Purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of 240 respondents for the study. A validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The data collected will be analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used in the study for analysis. From the result, majority (37.8%) of women were between the aged of26 and 30 years. The mean age ofwomen in their reproductive age is 29 years, 30.4% were married, 68..3% were rural dwellers, while 31.9% are urban dwellers. On the average, respondents give birth to three children. About 14.6% ofthe women had more than five children, 30.8% had one, and 17.9% had no children, while 14.6% had more than four. Majority (92.1%) were Christians, while 2.8% were Muslims, majority (57.5%) lived in single rooms while 32.5% lived in mud houses. With respect to the type oftoilet used, slightly below average (23.3%) subscribed to the water cistern system while over 36.3% used pit toilet. Over 50.4% consumed bore hole water while 42.9% consumed government supply water, about 34.6% of them stop at primary school level and 32.5% only stopped at secondary school level. The major occupation identified by majority were civil service (11.3%), trader (36.3%) and artisan (7.9%). Also, over 14.2% had no occupation, 53.3% of them had major income of between N31,000 and N50,000. In the dietary assessment analysis table above, the following can be deduced in a relative sense with daily consumption oftubers and cereals: garri (40.0%), fufu (35.9%), yam (34.3%), sweet potato (20.3%), water yam (21.5%) and three leaf yam (23.5%). That for legumes viz: Bambara nut (33.1%) groundnut (30.9%) cowpea (27.8%) akara (27.1%), Moi-moi (60.3%) and breadfruit (21.5%) none except core (23.8%) was obtainable for cereal product with respect to daily consumption, for Fruits, mango (24.5%) was mostly consumed with Ataiko (22.8%) and onion (22.8%) been the most consumed spice with beef (23.9%) being the most consumed meat and meat product. Among beverages, tea (31.4%), lemon grass (27.2%) and palm wine (27.8%) score high in daily consumption with palm oil (35.5%) and groundnut oil (22.8%) were more consumed daily under fat and oil. Based on the mean BMI measurement of the women of child bearing age, mean height was 128.54+13.32 while their mean weight being 59.49+11.05. the relationship between Body Mass Index and socio-demographic characteristics as revealed level of education (X2“19.478;p=0.003) and religion (X2“14.838;p=0.005) to be significant. MUAC (28.80+6.56), WC (83.86±13.79cm), the hip circumference was (98.94+23.50cm) and WHR (0.86+0.10) was found to be within the normal range. The study concludes that respondents had poor Nutritional BMI as a result of paucity intake of essential nutrients in daily diets.