ABSTRACT

The study compared dietary diversity scores of household in Umuahia  North and Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The specific objectives were to determine the socio-economic and demographic characteristic of the households, to ascertain the dietary diversity scores of the selected household, to determine the nutritional status of the home makers from the selected households, to compare dietary diversity scores of households in Umuahia North and Ikwuano and to relate the dietary diversity score with socio economic and nutritional status of the selected home makers.Systematic random sample was used to select each households used in all enumerated areas in Umuahia North and Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The study adopted cross sectional survey design. The study  population consisted of  men and  women in Umuahia North and IkwuanoLocal Government of AbiaState and those targeted were  men  and  women of reproductive age (15- 65years).Data was coded and statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used for the analysis. The findings of the study revealed thatmajority respondents had high dietary diversity score (70.2%) and few of the respondents (2.1% and 27.7%) had low and medium dietary diversity score. More than half (52.1%) respondents were normal, 20.7% were obese, 18.6% were overweight and 8.7% were underweight. There was a negative and insignificant  relationship between  dietary diversity score and educational status 0.054(0.398), there was a positive and significant relationship  between  dietary diversity score and  income status 0.129(0.045), there was a positive and insignificant  relationship between  dietary diversity score and body mass index 0.047(0.470), there was a positive and significant relationship between educational status and  Income Status 0.164(0.011) , there was a positive and insignificant relationship between educational status  and body mass index 0.030(0.637) and there was a positive and significant relationship between  income  status  and  body mass index 0.124(0.054) . It was recommended that government should organize program to ensure that people have knowledge about adequate nutrition and dietary diversification.