Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2001-2002 - Measure DHS

11.4 HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITYFood security is an important determinant of nutritional status. People are considered “foodinsecure” when they are unable to obtain sufficient food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences.The 2000-2002 ZDHS measured food security by asking how often households have enough foodto eat. Table 11.11 shows the results by background characteristics. According to the findings, only 36percent of households in Zambia usually or always have enough food to eat, while 45 percent sometimeshave enough food to eat. Nineteen percent of Zambian households report they seldom or never haveenough to eat and are thereby chronically food insecure. Eleven percent of urban households reportseldom or never having enough to eat, compared with 24 percent of rural households.Food security varies by province, with Northern (59 percent), Central (55 percent), and North-Western provinces (55 percent) having the highest proportions of households that are food secure, andSouthern (16 percent) and Eastern (19 percent) having the lowest.Table 11.11 Household food securityPercent distribution of households by whether household has enough food to eat, according tobackground characteristics, Zambia 2001-2002BackgroundcharacteristicHousehold has enough food to eatUsually/Always Sometimes Seldom Never Missing Total NumberResidenceUrban 39.6 49.5 10.4 0.5 0.0 100.0 2,437Rural 34.1 41.9 22.5 1.3 0.2 100.0 4,689ProvinceCentral 55.1 40.3 4.4 0.3 0.0 100.0 490Copperbelt 36.4 44.4 18.0 1.2 0.0 100.0 1,221Eastern 18.6 35.2 43.9 2.0 0.4 100.0 999Luapula 37.1 52.2 10.6 0.0 0.0 100.0 652Lusaka 34.4 59.1 6.1 0.4 0.0 100.0 976Northern 59.0 39.1 1.7 0.0 0.2 100.0 1,028North-Western 54.9 31.7 10.4 2.9 0.1 100.0 371Southern 15.7 33.8 47.6 2.9 0.0 100.0 734Western 24.4 60.8 14.7 0.0 0.2 100.0 656Total 36.0 44.5 18.4 1.0 0.1 100.0 7,12611.5 NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN UNDER AGE FIVEThe 2001-2002 ZDHS included measuring nutritional status of children under six years old bytaking body measurements to derive three indices, namely weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-forheight.Nutritional status of the child can be a direct indicator of the well being of the household. It alsoreflects on the community nutritional status and the future national development potential.11.5.1 Measures of Nutritional Status in ChildhoodAs recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the nutritional status of children inthe survey is compared with an international reference population defined by the U.S. National Centre forHealth Statistics (NCHS) and accepted by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Each of the three nutritional status indicators described below are expressed in standard deviation units(Z-scores) from the median for the reference population. The use of this reference population is based onNutrition among Children and Women │ 179