ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to determine the Food Security and Anthropometric Status of Adolescents Girls in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State. Data for this report was obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 310 adolescents. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on personal, parents’ socio-economic characteristics and food security. Information on anthropometry was also determined using standard methods. Data obtained from the study were subjected to statistical analysis, using statistical package for social sciences version 23.  The results of the different variables collected revealed that many of the respondents 127(41.0%) were within the ages of 13-15 years. The information on educational status of the parents showed that more than half (51.3% and 52.9%) of their fathers and mothers attained tertiary education. Information on the food security shows that more (30.3%) were severe food insecure as 21.3%, 28.7%, and 19.7% were food secure, mild food secured and moderate food secure, respectively. Anthropometric Status result showed that the prevalence of underweight, stunted, wasting and overweight among secondary students in the study area were 21.6%, 7.7%, 5.2% and 4.2% respectively. The relationship between socioeconomic status of the parents and food security status of the students revealed that there was no significant relationship between the socioeconomic variables and food security status (P>0.05). However, there was significant relationships between the food security and anthropometric status variables (weight for age and BMI for age) of the students (P<0.05). The correlation shows that there was negative relationship between the father’s occupation and household size as well as weight for age and food security status of the students. The study concluded that food security status is an important variable that affect nutrition outcomes either positively or negatively