European Journal of Scientific Research (ISSN: 1450 ... - EuroJournals

© European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol 7, No 5, 2005
income was difficult to verify and therefore may not be useful to assess the household
food security status owing to diversified sources of income and poor record keeping.
The nutritional status of the women in the households was a paradox to the food
insecurity status of the households. The prevalence of overweight and obesity observed
among the low socioeconomic households were higher than the national prevalence of
14.2% and 5.7% for overweight and obesity respectively. The prevalence of underweight
among the households was lower than the national value of 11.6%. This phenomenon
implies the co-existence of overweight and underweight and it is an indication of a dual
burden of malnutrition even among the low socioeconomic communities in spite of the
high prevalence of household food insecurity. This is consistent with previous findings
(Kaiser et al. 2004; Hawkes et al. 2005)
The food consumption pattern of the households was such that the most frequently
consumed staples foods were carbohydrate such as rice, bread, garri and Pap. These were
often complemented with “moinmoin” (steamed cowpea paste), fish and beef. The level
of fruit and vegetable intake was relatively low except for orange and green leafy
vegetables, which were averagely consumed at three times per week. Gulliford (2003)
had observed that food insecurity was associated with lower consumption of fruits and
vegetables. Also, Hawkes et al. (2005) claimed that in poorer countries, diet quality has
traditionally been equated with sufficient intake of energy, concentrated in sugars,
saturated fats and salt while being low in fruits, vegetables and whole grain cereals.
CONCLUSION
The findings from these communities show that food insecurity is a public health
problem among the low-income households and this is consistent with previous studies
(Piaseu et al. 2004; Furness et al. 2004). Because it negatively affects the dietary intake
and nutritional status of adults it leads to poor health and increased risk for the
development of chronic diseases (Olson and Holben, 2002). It also affects human
development and health throughout the life cycle, but can be particularly harmful during
the early critical or vulnerable stages and later in life (Cook, 2002). Thus, the high
prevalence of food insecurity observed among the low socioeconomic households
requires an urgent intervention in order to forestall the resultant adverse health and
development consequences. The food consumption pattern of the target households was
dominated by consumption of cereal foods (rice, wheat and maize), cassava products
(garri), and some protein foods such as cowpea, fish and beef. The need to carry out a
nation-wide periodic household food security assessment is hereby identified to inform
policy and intervention programmes.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the following nutritionists who
participated actively in data gathering: Adebolu OO, Akerele OA, Ajayi OO, Ekerette
UN, Fasesin OB, Ogedengbe VO, Ogunleye OL.
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