Household food security and adequacy of child diet in the food insecure region north in Ghana

Abstract

Background and objectivesAdequate diet is of crucial importance for healthy child development. In food insecure areas of the world, the provision of adequate child diet is threatened in the many households that sometimes experience having no food at all to eat (household food insecurity). In the context of food insecure northern Ghana, this study investigated the relationship between level of household food security and achievement of recommended child diet as measured by WHO Infant and Young Child Feeding Indicators.MethodsUsing data from households and 6–23 month old children in the 2012 Feed the Future baseline survey (n = 871), descriptive analyses assessed the prevalence of minimum meal frequency; minimum dietary diversity, and minimum acceptable diet. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of minimum acceptable diet with household food security, while accounting for the effects of child sex and age, maternal -age, -dietary diversity, -literacy and -education, household size, region, and urban-rural setting. Household food security was assessed with the Household Hunger Scale developed by USAID’s Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project.ResultsForty-nine percent of children received minimum recommended meal frequency, 31% received minimum dietary diversity, and 17% of the children received minimum acceptable diet. Sixty-four percent of the children lived in food secure households, and they were significantly more likely than children in food insecure households to receive recommended minimum acceptable diet [O.R = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.82]. However, in 80% of food secure households, children did not receive a minimal acceptable diet by WHO standards.ConclusionsChildren living in food secure households were more likely than others to receive a minimum acceptable diet. Yet living in a food secure household was no guarantee of child dietary adequacy, since eight of 10 children in food secure households received less than a minimum acceptable diet. The results call for research into factors besides household food security in the search for determinants of child diet adequacy. In this study at least, household food security was a very weak marker of child diet adequacy. This finding is of significance to public health practice, since it calls into question any assumption that having enough food in a household necessarily results in adequately fed children.

The Effect of Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Infant Feeding Practices in Rural Ethiopia: Community Based Birth Cohort Study

“…This implies that preterm infants were not receiving good IFPs as their full term counterparts. Consistent with our findings, previous studies reported that mothers of preterm infants initiated breastfeeding late and that pre-term infants are breastfed for a shorter duration [54][55][56]. Similarly, observational studies in Italy and the United Kingdom reported early introduction of solid foods with a majority of preterm infants receiving a solid food prior to 4 months of age [71,72].…”

“…Uganda, Pascal et al found that 8 out of 10 infants in food secure households were not receiving the minimum dietary diversity required and reported that household food insecurity explains only 10 percent of the variance of dietary quality determinants [56]. Conversely, our finding agrees with the studies in Kenya and Tanzania [57,58]; both studies concluded that infants from food insecure households were less likely to receive cow milk before they reached 6 months.…”

The Effect of Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Infant Feeding Practices in Rural Ethiopia: Community Based Birth Cohort Study

“…However, the direction of the association does not mean that all infants in food secure households received appropriate and adequate feeding. In Uganda, Pascal et al found that 8 out of 10 infants in food secure households were not receiving the minimum dietary diversity required and reported that household food insecurity explains only 10 percent of the variance of dietary quality determinants [75]. Conversely, our nding agrees with the studies in Kenya and Tanzania [76,77]; both studies concluded that infants from food insecure households were less likely to receive cow milk before they reached 6 months.…”

Pengembangan Indeks Ketahanan Pangan Rumah Tangga dan Kaitannya dengan Tingkat Kecukupan Zat Gizi dan Status Gizi Anak Balita

“…Secara statistik, tingkat kecukupan zat gizi anak yang berhubungan positif signifikan (p<0,01) dengan skor indeks ketahanan pangan rumah tangga adalah energi, protein, lemak, kalsium, zat besi, dan seng. Hal ini didukung oleh hasil penelitian Agbadi et al (2017) yang menyebutkan bahwa anak-anak dari rumah tangga yang tahan pangan lebih dapat menerima asupan zat gizi sesuai nilai yang direkomendasikan dibandingkan anakanak yang tinggal dari rumah tangga yang tidak tahan pangan. 42 Kondisi rawan pangan pada rumah tangga merupakan indikator kuat terhadap asupan zat gizi yang tidak memenuhi angka kecukupan zay gizi.…”

“…Hal ini didukung oleh hasil penelitian Agbadi et al (2017) yang menyebutkan bahwa anak-anak dari rumah tangga yang tahan pangan lebih dapat menerima asupan zat gizi sesuai nilai yang direkomendasikan dibandingkan anakanak yang tinggal dari rumah tangga yang tidak tahan pangan. 42 Kondisi rawan pangan pada rumah tangga merupakan indikator kuat terhadap asupan zat gizi yang tidak memenuhi angka kecukupan zay gizi. 43 Menurut M' Kaibi et al (2015), asupan zat gizi (energi, protein, zat besi, seng, kalsium) pada anak meningkat secara signifikan seiring dengan ketahanan pangan rumah tangga juga meningkat.…”