Nutritional status of primary school pupils and household food security in Egor Local Government Area of Benin-City

Abstract

Background: Nutritional status of children is an indication of how much the household is food secure. It emphasises the reason food is seen as an economic and political tool about a country’s national security. Therefore, the right to adequate nutritious food should not be denied any child. Despite Nigeria’s enormous natural and human capitals, it is ignoring the health of upcoming generations with the reduced nutrition of her children.

Objective: The study analysed the nutritional status of primary school pupils and household food security in Egor local government area of Benin-City.

Methods: This study adopted a survey research design with a sample size of 114 mothers filling an adapted questionnaire from Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). The anthropometric measurements of the children were also taken. The questionnaire was analysed using descriptive statistics, and WHO Anthro software was used to analyse the pupil’s anthropometric measurements.

Results: The result showed 54.4% of the respondents are self-employed, 48.8% have either primary school certificate or secondary school certificate while a total of 55.3% of the respondents have at least one University degree. Eighty-one which represent 71.1% of the respondents were categorised as having low economic status while only 23.9% have a high socioeconomic status. The food security status of the participated households were 59.6% were categorised as severely food insecure, 25.4% moderately food insecure, 14.0% mildly food insecure and 0.9% food secure. The BMI of 39.5% of the pupils were found to be below the average of WHO standard while 60.5% had a normal range BMI.

Conclusion: The researchers concluded that higher education or having a higher degree does not translate to the better nutritional status of pupils.

Keyword: Household food security, nutritional status, primary school pupils