ABSTRACT

This study assessed Food Security and Anthropometric Status of School Age Children in selected rural communities in Udenu Local Government Area, Enugu State. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information about the children studied. The questionnaire comprised of the personal characteristics of school-age children, socioeconomic characteristics of their parents, food record and food security questionnaire which was modified from the USDA food security core-model. Anthropometric indices of the children such as body weight and height were assessed using standard methods. The result revealed that there were more males (64%) than females (36.1%) among the pupils studied. The respondents that were involved in this study were between primary 1 to primary 6 and most of them were in primary 6 (28%) and primary 3 (24.7%). The result showed that most of the children (42.7%) lived with both parents. l'hc occupational status of the children's parents revealed that most .f their fathers (46.4%) and mothers (43.1%) were traders/business men and women respectively. A good number of the respondent's fathers (29.7%) had received primary education while greater number of the mothers (46.9%) had received secondary education. Food record of children showed that most of the children (63.6%) consumed their breakfast, lunch (79.5%), and dinner (72.8%) respectively. The respondents food security status revealed that 34.3% were moderately food insecure, mildly food insecure 28%, severely food insecure 23% and d 14.6% food secure respectively. The anthropometric status showed that majority of the children (56.1%) had normal BMI-for-age, height-for-age (63%), and weight-for-age (83.3%) respectively. In conclusion, the nutrition of growing children should be of utmost concern because they are in their developmental stage. It was recommended that in response to the high incidents of diseases caused by malnutrition among children, interventions such as School-based nutrition education, deworming, food fortification, supplementation and school feeding programmes need to be introduced