Child Nutritional Status, Food Safety Practice and Food Insecurity Experiences of Low-Income Households in Addis Ababa: The Case of Households Not Selected for Urban Productive Safety-Net Program Support

Abstract

Low-income households suffer from food insecurity due to, among others, illnesses coming from unsafe food, malnutrition and poor diet  diversity. This study aimed to assess child nutritional status, mothers’ knowledge and practice in food safety and food insecurity  experience in low-income households who were not supported by the urban productive safety net program. A cross-sectional study was  conducted among 328 randomly selected households and 242 under-five children therefrom. Data was collected using structured  questionnaires on knowledge and practice of mothers in food safety, household diet diversity and food insecurity experiences.  Anthropometric measurements were done on under-five children. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data. About 80% of our respondents were young mothers who had elementary or secondary school education (72.6%), with no occupation or worked as daily  laborers (84.5%). Most households (91.8%) were food insecure at different levels.. Mothers had poor knowledge (30%), good positive  attitude (95%) and poor practice (51%) in food safety. Anthropometric measurements revealed that prevalence of thinness, stunting and underweight among the study children was 10.7%, 2.1% and 9.5%, respectively. More under-five girls than boys suffered from thinness  and underweight. Most households fed their under-five children with legumes (93%) and grains (80%). Our study households need  safety-net support to improve their food security status. Training should be given to mothers on food safety and nutrition by health  extension workers.