Browsing by Subject "wealth"

Abstract Background Household food insecurity and hunger are associated with undernutrition of children under five years of age. Stunted, wasted and underweight young children are often living in food insecure households in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Low socioeconomic status is associated with both, food insecurity and malnutrition. Interestingly, children’ undernourishment and adults’ overweight occur sometimes in the same family. Aims The purpose was to investigate the prevalence of food insecurity, by two different assessment scales, among households with children at the age of 6–23 months in Nairobi and Chuka in Kenya. Differences in household food insecurity between the two living areas and households’ wealth, and an association between household food insecurity and nutritional status of mothers and children were examined. Methods The data from households (n=412) was cross-sectional and a part of InnoFood Africa project in 2021. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Household Hunger Scale (HHS) were used for analysing the prevalence of food insecurity. Sociodemographic background, housing characteristics, nutritional status indicators and HHS were used for the Chi2 -test and linear regression analysis. Results The prevalence of food insecurity by HFIAS and HHS were 63% and 15.5%, respectively. No difference in HHS was found between the living areas. The least wealthy households were more often moderately or severely hungry than the wealthiest households. Statistically significant association was found between HHS and lower maternal MUAC. No association was found between HHS and maternal BMI and any of child’s nutritional status indicators. Conclusion Household hunger was not associated with nutritional status of mothers and children. Further studies are needed to examine the prevalence of double burden of malnutrition in households living in urban and developing societies to understand better the causes for malnutrition.