Household food insecurity and its association with morbidity report among school adolescent in Jimma zone, Ethiopia
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Dessalegn Tamiru
and
Tefera Belachew
Abstract
Background
Household food insecurity has a substantial contribution to poor health outcomes among young children and adolescents. Food insecurity also affects optimal cognitive development and physiological function of these vulnerable groups. There is a gap of documented data regarding the association of food insecurity and morbidity among school adolescents in Ethiopia.
Objective
The aim of this study is to assess the interrelationship of household food insecurity and morbidity report among school adolescent in Jimma zone, Ethiopia.
Methods
A community based cross-sectional study was done from October to November, 2013. Data were gathered using structured questionnaires through interview of students and their caregivers. A total of 1000 students were selected by using simple random sampling methods using their rosters as a frame. Data were also checked for missing values and outliers, and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Regression analyses were used to see the strength of association between independent and dependent variables using odds ratios and 95% of confidence intervals.
Results
Adolescents from food insecure households had more reported illness (39.3%) than adolescents from food secure households (24.7%) (p < 0.001). Adolescents from food insecure households were two times more exposed to morbidity [AOR = 2.04(1.32, 3.14)] than adolescents from food secure households. This study also showed that males had 48% less reported illness [AOR = 0.52(0.01, 0.23)] than females. Adolescents who had attended health education had less reported illness [AOR = 0.57(0.38, 0.86)] than those who did not ever attend. This study also showed that having a farmer [AOR = 0.46(0.28, 0.74)] and government employee [AOR = 0.33 (0.17, 0.64)] father were inversely associated with adolescent morbidity.
Conclusion
The findings of this study showed that household food insecurity, female gender and lack of attending health education had a significant contribution to adolescent morbidity. Therefore, there is a need to improve household income earning capacity and strengthen school based health and nutrition education to prevent adolescent morbidity. The findings of this study can also be used to lead the development of programs aimed at preventing adolescent morbidity by notifying policymakers and other stakeholders about the association of morbidity with household food insecurity.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Jimma University and Ethiopian Public health institute for their cooperation in the provision of necessary materials and study participants for their commitment and time for this study.
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Conflict of interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
References
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Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Adverse effects of stimulant medications in children and adolescents: focus on drug abuse
- Short Communication
- Adolescent and parent perspectives prior to involvement in a Fontan transition program
- Reviews
- Adolescent suicide as a global public health issue
- (Health-related) quality of life and psychosocial factors in adolescents with chronic disease: a systematic literature review
- Original Articles
- Clustering of chronic diseases risk factors among adolescents: a quasi-experimental study in Sousse, Tunisia
- Blood, joy and tears: menarche narratives of undergraduate females in a selected in Nigeria Private University
- Renal lymphangiectasia treated with percutaneous drainage and sclerotherapy
- Trichotillomania in celiac disease patient refractory to iron replacement
- Metabolic syndrome in Iranian adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome
- Looks can be deceiving: body image dissatisfaction relates to social anxiety through fear of negative evaluation
- Excessive exercise among adolescents with eating disorders: examination of psychological and demographic variables
- Diet quality of adolescents with eating disorders
- A picture of Indian adolescent mental health: an analysis from three urban secondary schools
- From child to grown up in a medical world: developing an adolescent transition programme at a Norwegian University hospital
- Household food insecurity and its association with morbidity report among school adolescent in Jimma zone, Ethiopia
- The effects of introducing Tabata interval training and stability exercises to school children as a school-based intervention program
