ABSTRACT

 This study assessed household food security and anthropometric status of women in Bende L.G.A Abia State. The study was a cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 195 women. Data on personal and socio-economic status of the women, food security status of the women and anthropometric status was assessed using standard procedure. The IBM SPSS version 22.0 computer programme was used to analyze the data. Data obtained were presented using frequency and percentage. Chi-square was used to analyze the association between food security and anthropometric status of the women. The study revealed that most (66.2%) of the women were above 35 years old. Majority (75.9%) of them attended tertiary education and some (32.8%) of them were civil servants. Majority (90.3%) of the household studied were food insecure. From the anthropometric status of the women, more than half (52.3%) of the women were overweight while the prevalence of obesity among them was quite high (22.1%). Their waist hip ratio showed that majority (70.3%) of them were at risk of cardiovascular diseases. There was a significant association between food security status, body mass index and waist hip ratio of the women.  Due emphasis should be given for the designing and implementation of nutrition interventions and initiation of income generating livelihood to the community to curtail under nutrition and household food insecurity in the locality.