Nutritional consequences of food insecurity related to malnutrition among preschool children in rural household, Tumpat
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Date
2006
Authors
Afandi, Aflah
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Abstract
Food insecurity is increasingly recognized as public health issues in Malaysia; however, the understanding of its phenomenon is still lacking due to scarcity of local data. This study was undertaken to investigate the nature of food insecurity in Tumpat, a province with the highest rate of underweight among preschool children in Kelantan. The purposes of this study were to estimate the prevalence of household food insecurity, identify socio-demographic characteristics of food insecure household. Identify the contributing factors and examine the consequences of food deprivation. In the cross-sectional study, weights and heights/lengths were measured in a sample of mothers and children from 296 selected households. Questionnaires were used to collect socio-economic and other related information. The validated Radlmer / Cornell Food Security Instrument were utilized to assess food insecurity. More than half of the participants had experienced some degree of food insecurity (12 % household food insecure, 21 % individual food secure and 12 % child hunger). Food Insecure households were characterized as living below the poverty line, receiving food basket from supplementary food scheme, larger household size, more children, non-working mothers and lower education level for both parents. This study also revealed that the percentage of underweight (56.6 %, p=0.010) and stunted (25.3 %, p=0.018) children among food insecure households were higher compared to food secure households. The percentage of pre-schoolers consuming less that the Recommended Nutrient Intake for all nutrients except selenium and vitamin C were significantly greater among food insecure respondents than food secure respondents. Children’s feeding practices such as eating habit, frequency of eating meal per day and children’s appetite in both groups were comparable. However, children from food insecure households had more frequent visits to the clinics (p=0.003) and were more likely to consume junk food (p=0.049). Father’s education beyond the secondary level (OR=0.4, CI=0.23, 0.79) together with the total household income more than RM 1000 (OR=0.3, CI=0.11, 0.81) were identified as protective factors against food insecurity. Whereas, households in Bunohan (OR=3.8, CI=1.39, 10.24) and Sungai Pinang (OR=3.0, CI=1.31, 6.84) were found to be associated with higher risk for food insecurity. This study failed to prove the direct association between food insecurity and undernutrition. This study suggested that low weight-for-age among pre-schoolers were indirectly associated with low quality of dietary intake, regularly consuming junk foods and the children had frequent visits to the health clinics, as a result from food insecurity state. In conclusion underweight and food insecurity were prevalent in this community. This finding highlighted that food insecurity indirectly affects the nutritional status of preschoolers through dietary pattern, feeding practices and health status.
Description
Master
Keywords
Biological science , Food insecurity , Malnutrition