Prevalence and contributing factors of household food insecurity among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

¹Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria, ²Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria

^&Corresponding author
Quadri Kunle Alabi, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria

Introduction    

One of the basic requirements for the sustenance of life is food; it should be adequate in quantity and quality in order to live a healthy and productive life. Food security occurs when all people, at all times, have both physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life [1]. This can be examined at various levels, which include global, national, regional, household, and individual levels. Food security at the national or regional level does not translate to food security among communities, households, and individuals. Food security entails the availability of food, the accessibility (the physical and financial resources to access food), and the ability to utilize food [2].

Food insecurity occurs when there is irregular access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food for growth and development and to live an active and healthy life. This can be observed at different levels of severity, which are severe food insecurity, moderate, and mild food insecurity [3]. A severely food-insecure household has run out of food and gone a day or more without eating. Most times, the particular household has experienced hunger. At the household level, the presence of food insecurity suggests a high degree of vulnerability to a broad spectrum of consequences, including psychosocial dysfunction in children, socio-familial problems, and overall poor health status [4].

Food insecurity has both short and long-term consequences, which impact physical health, social, and economic development [5]. It often results in stress, cycles of fasting and bingeing, and the replacement of relatively higher cost, higher nutrition food with lower cost, energy-dense food, resulting in nutrient deficiencies, metabolic changes, weight loss or, seemingly paradoxically, overweight and obesity [6].

Food insecurity is a global problem, though the prevalence and consequences are more severe in developing countries. Over 900 million people worldwide are chronically hungry, and of these, 800 million, representing about 18% of the world´s population, are in developing countries [7]. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that almost 200 million Africans were undernourished at the dawn of the millennium compared to 133 million 20 years earlier [7].

Lack of physical and economic access to safe and sufficient food by individuals and households has resulted in reactions and responses such as feelings of uncertainty or anxiety over food supply, reduction in portion sizes, and hunger [8]. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), which measures the access component of household food insecurity represented by the three domains of food insecurity, captures these experiences [9]. The Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), which measures whether a household is food insecure as well as the severity of the food insecurity, was used to determine the prevalence of food insecurity.

Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, there is a dearth of information regarding food insecurity in the study area. Also, addressing food insecurity requires knowing prevalence of the problem and the contributing factors. The purpose of this study was to determine prevalence of food insecurity, socio-economic factors, and contributing factors to food insecurity among households in Akinyele local government Area, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Methods     

Study area and design: this study was conducted in the Akinyele local government Area. It occupies a land area of 464.892km² with a population of 211,811 on a density of 516 persons per km². There were 12 wards in Akinyele local government Area, these are: Ikereku, Olanla/Oboda/Labode, Arulogun/Eniosa/Aroro, Olode/Amosun/Onidundu, Ojo-Emo/Moniya, Akinyele/Isabiyi/Irepodun, Iwokoto/Talonta/Idi-oro, Ojoo/Ajibode/Laniba, Ijaye/Ojedeji, Ajibade/Alabata, Olorisa-Oko/Okegbemi/Mele, and Iroko. It was a cross-sectional study. The study was conducted between June and August 2021.

Target population: women aged 20-59 years who are living in Akinyele Local Government Area and were largely responsible for handling the food preparation and food distribution within the household were selected for the study.

Ethical consideration: the study was conducted according to the guidelines found in the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval for the study was sought from the Ministry of Health, Oyo State ethical review committee, with reference. no: AD/131479/4177. Respondents were duly informed about the purpose of the study, and written informed consent was obtained before the commencement of the study.

Sampling technique and sample size determination

A multi-stage sampling technique was used

Stage one: random selection of three wards out of the twelve wards in Akinyele local government Area. Three (3) wards were selected by balloting; the wards selected were: Arulogun/Eniosa/Aroro, Olode/Amosun/Onidundu, and Ojo-Emo/Moniya.

Stage two: random selection of one community from the selected wards. The selected communities were Arulogun, Moniya, and Olode.

Stage three: 399 households were selected from the selected communities using systematic random sampling with a sampling interval of 5. At least 105 households were selected from each community, out of which 364 questionnaires were eventually used for the analysis.

Sample size determination

Considering the prevalence of food insecurity in Edo State as 61.8%, a relative precision of 20%, a design effect of 2, and a non-response rate of 10%, the sample size was 399 [10].

Operational definition

Household: a household consists of one or several persons who live in the same house and share meals [11].

Food-secure: a household was labelled ‘food-secure' when the members rarely, in the past four weeks, worried about not having enough food [9].

Mildly food-insecure: the members of the household worried about not having enough food sometimes or often, and/or were unable to eat preferred foods, and/or ate a more monotonous diet than desired, and/or ate some foods considered undesirable but only rarely [9].

Moderately food-insecure: the household members sacrificed quality more frequently by eating a monotonous diet or undesirable foods sometimes or often, and/or had started to cut back on quantity by reducing the size of meals or number of meals, rarely or sometimes [9].

Severely food-insecure: the individuals in the household had to cut back on meal size or number of meals often, and/or experienced any of the three most severe conditions (running out of food, going to bed hungry, or going a whole day and night without eating) [9].

Instrument for data collection: a pretested, structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. A 13-item household food insecurity access scale was used to determine the prevalence of food insecurity. The questionnaire was adapted from the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization [12].

The questions contained in the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) were asked with a recall period of four weeks (28 days). Respondents were asked an occurrence question, to state whether the condition in the question happened in the past month (yes or no response was given). Each of the questions was followed by frequency of occurrence to determine whether the condition happened rarely (once or twice), sometimes (3 to 10 times), often (11 to 20 times), or always (more than 20 times) in a month. The questionnaire for data collection was translated into the local language (Yoruba language).

Data analysis: the questionnaire contained 13 items on household food insecurity. A score was allocated for each question as follows: 3 if the statement never occurred, 2 if it occurred sometimes, and 1 if it occurred often. The respondents were classified into the categories of food insecurity based on their total score on the food insecurity scale. Households with a mean score of four were classified as food secure, households with mean score of three as mildly food insecure, households with mean score of two as moderately food insecure, and households with a mean score of one were classified as severely food insecure. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23. Chi-squared test was conducted to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics and food insecurity, while multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with food insecurity. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results     

Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Age results revealed that 9.9% were 20-29 years old, 47.8% were 30-39 years old, 33.0% were 40-49%, while 9.3% were 50 years and above. For religion, 66.5% were Christian, and 33.5% were Muslim. On the level of education, 48.4% had no formal education, 39.6% had primary school education, and 12.0% had secondary school education. On marital status, 28.6% were single, 66.5% were married, 0.5% were divorced, and 4.4% were widowed.

Prevalence of household food insecurity among the respondents: as shown in Table 2 and Table 3, almost a quarter (24.2%) of the respondents eat once during the day, majorities (71.4%) eat twice, only 3.8% eat thrice in a day and 0.6% eat more than three times in a day. Most (70.9%) of the respondents worried that their household would not have enough food, while 29.1% of the respondents didn't worry about food. Among those who worry, 15.1% do that rarely, a third (33.4%) do that sometimes, 20.9% do that often, and almost a third (30.6%) have to worry about food always. Majority (69.8%) of the respondents reported that in the past four weeks, some household members had to eat a smaller portion of a meal than they felt was needed because there was not sufficient food, while 26.9% didn't. Among those who said yes, 12.2% said it rarely happens, 37.8% said it happens sometimes, 28.0% said it happens often, and 22.0% said it happens always. Majority (78.9%) of the respondents reported that some household members skipped a meal in the last four weeks because there was not enough money to buy food, 20.8% declined, and 10.2% were unsure. A larger percentage (76.1%) of the respondents said that there was no food to eat of any kind in their household in the past month because of a lack of money to get food, while 13.9% declined. Figure 1 shows that 24% were food secured, while 76.1% were food insecure (11.6% were mildly food insecure, 30.5% were moderately food insecure, and 33.9% were severely food insecure. Socio-economic factors contributing to food insecurity among the respondents as shown in Table 4, 48.3% of the respondents reported that family earnings are no longer sufficient to buy enough food, while 41.2% of the respondents reported that family size is too large and food is being rationed.

Association between socio-demographic characteristics and prevalence of food insecurity among the respondents: Table 5 shows that, Age [X=3.409; p-value < .012]; Marital Status [X=2.676; p-value < .018]; Type of family [X=2.889; p-value < .042] and Occupation [X=2.791; p-value < .034] have significant relationship with food insecurity. However, Religion [X=1.026; p-value > .117], Level of education [X=2.009; p-value < .083], and Ethnicity [X=1.361; p-value < .089] do not have a significant relationship with food insecurity status.

Factors associated with household food insecurity among the respondents: as shown in Table 6, family earnings, family size, and buying aso ebi were shown to be the factors associated with food insecurity among the respondents.

Discussion     

The majority (76%) of the households were food insecure, with 33.9% being severely food insecure, which shows that most respondents cannot afford three meals per day due to lack of funds and unavailability of food at home, and have to cut back on meal size. The plausible reason for this is that there is an economic recession in Nigeria, which has adversely affected the means of livelihood of many households. The level of food insecurity observed in the current study is in contrast with previous study carried out in Osun State, it was reported that the prevalence of food insecurity was 54% [13] but is in agreement with findings from a study carry out in Imo State where the prevalence of food insecurity was reported to be 79% [14]. The high prevalence of food insecurity observed among the studied households is cause for concern, and encourages immediate action to be taken to forestall the adverse effects this might have on the household members.

The study revealed that level of education was not significantly associated with food insecurity [X²=2.009; p-value = 0 .083], this was in disagreement with a study carried out in Ethiopia, which reported that the head of households with a low level of education had a higher risk of being food insecure [15]. However, being educated (going to school) does not translate to financial education, which is not taught in school.

This finding revealed that having a large family size is significantly associated with food insecurity [X²=2.889; p-value = 0.042]. This study is supported by the studies done in Nigeria and other African Countries [16-18], which reported food insecurity in a family of large size. This may be because larger families have a higher chance of possessing a lower per capita income, which in turn affects the portion size of food distributed to members of the household. This finding calls for health education on the importance of family planning for reduction in family size.

Findings also revealed that socio-economic factors militating against food security include insufficient family earnings, large family size, and preference for other things over food. Almost half (48.3%) of the households reported that the family earnings are insufficient and cannot afford sufficient food for the members of the household. More than half (55.5%) of the respondents reported buying expensive clothes for a party at the expense of food.

The study revealed a significant association between socio-economic status and food insecurity. Poor households (66.7%) had a higher risk of food insecurity compared to rich households (1.4%), which corroborates with other findings that low income is the major and most consistent predictor of food insecurity, especially in developing countries [19]. Also, high prices of food have made the situation worse and resulted in restrictions on the portion and quality of meals consumed, reduced dietary variety, and consumption of inexpensive processed food. Logistic regression analysis shows that family size, family earnings, and attending occasions/buying asoebi were factors contributing to household food insecurity. Households with large family size were 5.5 times more likely (AOR=5.5; 95% CI=1.06-17.15) to be food insecure compared to those with small family size.

The limitation of this study includes recall bias, as the HFIAS tool sought to ascertain past experiences of food insecurity. Also, the quality of food consumed and gender discrimination in food allocation were not considered. These aspects would need to be explored in future studies.

Conclusion     

The study revealed a high prevalence of food insecurity among households in the Akinyele local government Area, Ibadan. Identified factors militating against food security include insufficient family earnings, large family size, and preference for other things over food. The governments need to make strategies to help quick economic recovery to forestall the effects of a financial crisis and ensure women´s empowerment. Public health experts, through health education, need to encourage the masses to embrace the use of family planning methods for population control. Household heads should ensure that the purchase of food is prioritized over non-food items.

Competing interests     

The authors declare no competing interests.

Authors' contributions     

Olariike Oyindasola Kayode conceptualized the idea, organized the data, and wrote the draft of the manuscript. Quadri Kunle Alabi edited and reviewed the results and contributed to the writing and editing of the final version of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Tables and figures     

Table 1: socio-demographic characteristics of women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

Table 2: prevalence of household food insecurity status among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

Table 3: prevalence of household food insecurity status among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

Table 4: socio-economic factors contributing to food insecurity among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

Table 5: association between socio-demographic characteristics and prevalence of food insecurity

Table 6: logistic regression analysis of factors associated with household food insecurity among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

Figure 1: prevalence of food insecurity among women in Akinyele local government, Ibadan

References