ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional survey was carried out to assess the intra-household nutritional status of 50 households (male headed 74% and female headed 26%) in Umudike community in Ikwuano L.G.A. Abia State. The households were randomly selected. The questionnaire was validated by lecturers at the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, MOUAU and used to obtain information on the socio-economic status, demography, and dietary pattern of the different households. Anthropometric information was obtained through measurements of anthropometric parameters and the data obtained compared with standard. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and simply descriptive statistics were used to analyze the information from the questionnaire. Information from socio-economic characteristics revealed that majority of the respondents had secondary school as their highest certificate (married 55.9%, widowed 20.0%). An appreciable number of the respondents (fathers) who stopped at secondary school level had access to food through growing as well as purchasing, (primary school 28.0%, secondary school 53.6%, tertiary institution 4.3% and none 3.6%). The illiterate maintained a particular pattern of food consumption i.e. (individually 9.5%, group 0.0% and both 0.0%). Also, food distribution in households, parents had 68%, children 22% and equal distribution 10%. This resulted to parents being healthier than the children (i.e. better nutritional status), underweight (parents 4.8%, children 67.2%), normal weight (parents 55.4%, children 26.9%), overweight (parents 31.3%, children 5.9%) and obese (parents 8.4%, children 0.0%). The correlation between height and age was significant (P>0.01). It was observed that parents do not know the right trend of food distribution among members in the households and this could lead to double burden of malnutrition in households where both parents and children were malnourished if nothing is done fast.