Socio-economic determinants of nutritional status of women beneficiaries of UNICEF-assisted nutrition enhancement programme in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analysed the effect of UNICEF-assisted nutrition enhancement programme on the nutritional status of women beneficiaries in Abia State. Multi stage random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The total sample size for the study was one hundred and twenty respondents. A set of structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Data obtained from the study were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The double-log form of regression showed R² value of 0.94. The results obtained showed that age (7.994318), education (8.591687), income (2.490001) were positively and significantly related to UNICEF nutrition programme (3.433564) being positively significant at 1% also affected their nutritional status, while household size (-2.519484) was negatively significant. Among other things, it is recommended that, Government should give education of the girl child a policy support in Nigeria for it will avail the less privileged ones the opportunity of going to school and being educated, and as a way of sustaining the women’s nutritional status for reproduction and food security at the household level and development in its entirety at large.

Keywords: Nutrition enhancement programme, Socio-economic determinants, Body mass index