ABSTRACT

Food insecurity is of global concern and contributes to poor health outcome for all. Household food insecurity is one of the factors affecting nutrition status of both children and adults in the household. This study assessed the food insecurity and coping strategies in households in Ikwuano local government, Abia state. The study was a cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 400 households. Data on socio demographic and socio-economic characteristics, food security and coping strategy were collected using structured, pretested and validated questionnaire. The IBM SPSS version 25.0 computer programme was used to analyze the data. Data obtained were presented using frequency and percentage. Chi square was used to examine the association between food insecurity and socio economic characteristics of the respondents. Regression analysis was used to identify the socio economic determinants of household food insecurity and coping strategies. P value of <0.05 will be considered significant. Result from the study showed that majority (81.7%) of the household heads were male.  Most (79.1%) of them were married, some (48.5%) attended secondary education while some (30.0%) were traders. A larger percentage (48.1%) of the respondents earn above N50, 000 in a month. More than half (54.3%) of the households were food insecure while 45.7% were food secure. Majority (97.3%) of the households had a low coping strategy. There was a significant relationship between monthly income, level of education, main occupation of mother and food security status of the respondents (p<0.05). This study recommended that Nigerian government and other development agencies need to provide more support or grants to households (particularly those with low socioeconomic status) so as minimize the shock and aid the recovery of household food security during and post COVID-19. Emphasis should be given for the designing and implementation nutrition interventions and initiation of income generating livelihood to the community to curtail under nutrition and household food insecurity in the locality.