Prevalence of Adolescent Food Insecurity and Associated Factors among Coffe Producing Woredas in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: -Individual food insecurity at the household level results from the interaction of a wider range of factors. These factors influence the amount and type of food which households are able to produce or purchase, and the ways in which these foods are utilized within the household. Adolescent nutrition is given less attention in nutrition policies, strategies and programs of low income countries; which might explain the high prevalence ofboth acute and chronic malnutrition among adolescents in developing countries. Objective: -Prevalence of Adolescent Food Insecurity and Associated Factor among Coffee Producing Woredas in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia. Methods: - Community based cross-sectional study was employed in coffee producing Woredas in Jimma zone, south west Ethiopia from April-May 2015. A total of 550 household having adolescents were included. In this study, multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select sample households. Data were entered, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS Version 20.Bi-variatewith a p-value < or = 0.25 were considered candidates for multivariable logistic regression and p-value < 0.05 was considered as a cut-off point to determine statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from concerned body. Result: - Sixty percent of adolescents (60%) were found to be food insecure whereas prevalence of household food insecurity was 75%. Female sex of adolescent (P<0.001), Household food insecurity (P<0.001), female sex of household head (P=0.002), high dependency ratio(P=0.001) were positively independent predictors of adolescent food insecurity while educational status of household head and own land for farmwere negatively associated with adolescent food insecurity.Majority of the respondent (92.2%) report seasonality of food scarcity during April- Jun which is during data collection period Conclusion and recommendation: - Even though there is long-held belief that cash cope farmers are better off than non-cash crop farmers in food security because of high income they generate, this study highlighted the problem of food insecurity in coffee producing farmers. High prevalence of household and adolescent seasonality food scarcity occurred in average of three months namely April, May and Jun.This calls for the development of direct nutrition interventions targeting adolescents (like school feeding program should be an integral component of food security intervention in study area) to promote catch-up growth and break the intergenerational cycle of malnutritionby Improving multisectoral interventions approach to address multifaceted causes of food insecurity.