Ecology of food and nutrition
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The aim of this study was to examine the association between household food insecurity and nutritional status among children aged 24-59 months in Haromaya District. Children (N = 453) aged 24-59 months were recruited in a community-based cross-sectional survey with a representative sample of households selected by a multistage sampling procedure in Haromaya District. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and anthropometry were administered. ⋯ The mean household food insecurity access scale score was 3.34, and 39.7% of households experienced some degree of food insecurity. By logistic regression analysis and after adjusting for the confounding factors, household food insecurity was significantly predictive of underweight (AOR = 2.48, CI = 1.17-5.24, p = .05) and chronic energy deficiency (AOR = 0.47, CI = 0.23-0.97, p = .04) and marginally significant for wasting (AOR = 0.53, CI = 0.27-1.03, p = .06). It is concluded that household food security improves child growth and nutritional status.
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In Zimbabwe, unpredictable conditions associated with structural and institutional factors exacerbated the combined effects of structural violence, economic and political instability, and climate change in the mid 2000s, contributing to widespread food insecurity. Drought, food shortages, and government settlement policy affecting both rural and urban populations has yielded a national human rights crisis. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Mutare, southeast Zimbabwe, in 2005-2006, the authors illustrate the flow-on effects of drought and government policy on the livelihoods of households already suffering as a result of the social impacts of AIDS, and how people in a regional city responded to these factors, defining and meeting their basic food needs in diverse ways.
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Despite growing wealth in China, a significant share of children across rural China still have no access to iron-rich foods, vitamins, and other micronutrients. Such poor diets may result in high incidences of nutritional problems, including anemia. The objective of the study was to increase understanding of the extent of anemia, and identify structural correlates of anemia in poor Shaanxi province's primary schools. ⋯ We find that those students that are boarding at school and eat lunch away from home are more likely to be anemic. Children with anemia are found to have lower height for age (HAZ) scores. If this part of Shaanxi province is representative of all poor counties in China, these findings mean millions of children in poor rural China may be anemic.