ABSTRACT

Food security is an important dimension of well-being which tends to affect health and nutritional status of populations. This cross sectional study was carried out to assess  the food security and anthropometric status of preschool children in Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State. A total of 253 pre-school children were selected using simple random sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-economic characteristics and food habit of the respondents. Food security status of the respondents was assessed using the USDA guide for measuring household food security while dietary diversity was scored using WHO standard. Anthropometric indices of the preschool children were collected and grouped using WHO anthro. Data obtained were analyzed with SPSS version 20.0, using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages and chi-square. The result showed that 54.9% of the children were 2-4 persons in their homes. About 46.1% and 41.1% of their mothers and fathers were graduates. Most of the children adopted good eating habit. Slightly above half (55.7%) of the children were food insecure with moderate hunger where as 26.5% were food insecurity with hunger severe. However, 17.8% were food insecure without hunger.  Majority (95.2%) consumed more than four food groups. Prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight was low among 3.6%, 8.3% and 2.4% of the children. However, prevalence of overweight was high probably due to their food insecurity levels that had predisposed them to excessive carbohydrate consumption. There was no significant relationship between nutritional status of the children and their food security status, dietary diversity scores. Similarly, no significant (p>0.05) relationship was found between weight-for-height, height-for-age and socioeconomic status of the children’s parents. Household size and occupation of the children’s parents significant determine their weight-for-age. Similarly, parents educational levels and occupational status significant (p<0.05) determine the food security levels of the children. There is need for the parents to diversify the food given to their children, by including foods from the egg, fruits and vegetable groups.