ABSTRACT

Malnutrition is widespread in Nigeria and has persisted at alarmingly high rate. Nutrition problems are at times due to lack of education and knowledge about healthy nutrition behaviours and practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the food consumption, knowledge and practices of food selection among mothers in rural and urban areas of Abia State. The population comprised of mothers aged 20-49 and above that were randomly selected from each clan in Umuahia Metropolis. Data collection was done using a closed ended questionnaire. In the classification of the knowledge questions correct response was assigned the value of one while zero was given to the wrong responses. The knowledge score was derived from the summation of the individual question scores while the percentage knowledge score was obtained by dividing the knowledge score by the number of knowledge items. Knowledge was graded thus: ≤ 39.9 as poor knowledge, 40.0-69.9 as average knowledge while ≥ 70.0 as good knowledge. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation) were used to analyze the socio-demographic/economic characteristics, family structure of the respondents, food consumption pattern of the mothers and mothers’ practices of food selection. Significant difference was judged at p<0.05. the result revealed that less than half (35.4%) of the mothers were between the ages of 41 and above, some (34.0%) were 31-40years. majority (45.2%) were married, less than half (49.8%) were rural dwellers while majority (50.2%) are urban dwellers. Majority of the respondents (27.4%) had a total family income between the range of N 31, 000- N 35, 000, some (24.7%) of them earned N41, 000 and above monthly while 24.4% of them earned between N 30, 000 and below, others(23.5%) earned between 36,000-40,000. Most (22.4%)mothers were farmers, greater than half (57.7%) had an average knowledge of nutrition, 22.3% of mothers had poor knowledge of nutrition while 20.5% had good nutritional knowledge. majority (80.2%) skipped meal, greater percentage (84.7%) of respondents were allergic to certain foods. Food selections of most were determined by religion (27.9%), culture (26%) and income (21.5). Availability (21%), affordability (23%), health (21%) and advertisement (15%) were influential factors to the mothers’ food choices and consumption. This study also revealed that most (67.6%) mothers' food selection was affected by income Religion (65.7%), and culture (50.7) was also attributed to practice of food selection among mothers. Thus, the study concludes that there was a significant relationship between the meal mothers skipped and their nutritional knowledge (P <0.05). Furthermore, a significant relationship exist between the mothers' knowledge and meal frequency (P<0.05). However, no significant relationship exists between the mothers' knowledge and the reasons why they skipped meal (P > 0.05). The study recommends continued provision of both formal education to adults and nutrition education by community health workers. This would enable the mothers make appropriate decisions in food selection. This would also help to utilize the available income to buy nutritious foods. Also, to improve the nutrition knowledge level among the mothers, the Ministry of Health at national level should come up with a counseling package and policy for use in counseling these mothers.