ABSTRACT

The study was aimed to look out for the food security, diet quality and anthropometric status of the clinical staff in Amachara Specialist Hospital, Umuahia-South, Abia State; with the specific objectives of  assessing the demographic and economic characteristics of the respondents, evaluating food security level of the respondents, assessing diet quality and anthropometry status of the respondents and identifying the association between food security, diet quality and anthropometric status of the respondents.  The sample size comprised of the clinical staffs in the General Hospital Amachara, Umuahia-South, Abia State. Data on the demographic and economic characteristics of the respondents, food security level of the respondents and the diet quality of the respondents were collected using a structured and validated questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-administered to the selected staffs in the study area. The anthropometric measurements included weight and height, hips circumference, and the waist circumference of the respondents were taken with the reference of the WHO (2016) recommended guidelines for measuring weight, height, hips circumference and waist circumference for adults. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage was used to analyze data on demographic and economic characteristics of the respondents, food security level of the respondents and the diet quality, and all descriptive statistics were presented in percentage (%), mean, standard deviation, median, frequency and standard deviation. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the relationship between food security, diet quality and anthropometric status of the respondents. The result showed that the majority of the respondents (55.0%) were female. The result showed that a larger population of the respondents (62.5%) fall under the age group of 30-49 years. The result on the socio-economic characteristics of the mothers showed that 36.7% of the respondents were Nurses. The findings revealed that more than half of the respondents (60.0%) had a monthly stipend of 91-150,000NGN. Most (64.2%) of the respondents had borehole as their source of drinking water while some (35.8%) had other sources other than borehole. The result showed that some of the respondents (38.3%) and (37.5%) were moderately and mildly food insecure respectively while 20.8% were food secure and only very few (3.3%) were severely food insecure.  The result showed that majority (97.5%) of the respondents consumed food from whole grains the previous day prior to the survey. Result showed that a larger population of the respondents (35.0%) were within the normal range, 25.8% were overweight, 31.7% were obese (class one), while few (7.5%) of the respondents were within the range of obese class 2.  In conclusion, the knowledge of food security and diet quality among clinical staffs could contribute to better health outcomes and lower the likelihood of developing non-communicable diseases among healthcare workers which in turn makes them more healthy and adequate to carry out their work efficiently, therefore, it is highly recommended to develop and integrate workplace initiative promoting access to nutritious meals, healthy snacks and educational resources to enhance the diet quality and nutritional wellbeing of health workers.