Dear Label_Name,

Greetings! I hope you are well.

I am writing on behalf of an international publishing house, Science and Education Publishing, USA (http://www.sciepub.com).

Science and Education Publishing (SciEP) is a multidisciplinary open access publisher of Journals covering the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine. All SciEP publications are subject to high-quality peer review, editorial and production processes and are freely available online.

Welcome to the April, 2013 edition of SciEP newsletter, providing monthly summaries of articles on science & education related topics of interest to scientist and professionals. The mission of our journals is to provide an open access forum for publishing new findings on issues pertinent to scientific and academic field. We also invite you to submit original research papers, review articles, short reports, or case studies are considered for publication in our Multidisciplinary Journals.

American Journal of Public Health Research
DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-1-1-3

The Implementation of a Tele-Homecare System with Service Oriented Architecture and HL7 Message Transmission Standard
Ching-Sung Wang

American Journal of Medical and Biological Research
DOI: 10.12691/ajmbr-1-1-2

The Influence of Ethanol on Pyruvate Kinases Activity in Vivo, in Vitro, in Silico
Lelevich Sergey Vladimirovich, Khrustalev Vladislav Victorovich, Barkovsky Eugene Victorovich, Shedogubova Tatyana Aleksandrovna

American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine
DOI: 10.12691/ajmsm-1-1-1

Clinical and Histological Features in Wegener Granulomatosis
Li Cavoli Gioacchino, Passantino Rita, Bono Luisa, Tortorici Calogera, Ferrantelli Angelo, Giammarresi Carlo, Rotolo Ugo

American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
DOI: 10.12691/ajidm-1-1-2

The Curse of Lymphatic Filariasis: Would the Continual Use of Diethylcarbamazine Eliminate this Scourge in Papua New Guinea?
Anne Lanham, Lillian Mwanri

We have released issues of some journals on February 2013.
American Journal of Public Health Research
American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine
American Journal of Medical and Biological Research
American Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
American Journal of Clinical Medicine Research
American Journal of Nursing Research
American Journal of Cancer Prevention
American Journal of Medicine Studies
American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
American Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research
American Journal of Biomedical Research
American Journal of Mechanical Engineering
American Journal of Microbiological Research
Journal of Preventive Medicine
American Journal of Food and Nutrition
American Journal of Hypertension Research
American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine
Journal of Cancer Research and Treatment
American Journal of Zoological Research
Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology
American Journal of Microbiological Research
Biomedical Science and Engineering

We are pleased to announce that submissions are now being accepted for peer review for all the journals across all our subject areas in SciEP.

Please submit your manuscript via our online submission system:
http://www.sciepub.com/author/signin

To unsubscribe from our mailing list, please click on the following link: unsubscribe

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

David Rain
Email:join@sciepub.com
Science and Education Publishing (http://www.sciepub.com)

Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity among Households in Selected Areas in Bangladesh

Md. Nahian Rahman*, Syeda Saima Alam, Mahbubur Rahman, Shaidaton Nisha, Khaleda Islam

MSc, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract: Household food insecurity is where no-one in the household has physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life at all times. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Dhaka, Mymensing, Khulna and Sylhet division of Bangladesh. Total 100 households were selected by multistage sampling. Data were collected using structured and pretested questionnaire through interviewing household heads. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 statistical package. Descriptive statistics and chi square were performed to achieve study objectives. It was found that about 19% households were food insecure. Of those households, 6% were mildly food insecure, 11% and 2% households were moderately and severely food insecure, respectively. Findings suggest that attention is needed on stabilization of food markets, and job opportunities should be created to improve household food insecurity in these study areas.

Keywords: household food insecurity, prevalence, food security, Bangladesh, Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), household

Received June 14, 2020; Revised July 15, 2020; Accepted July 24, 2020

Citation: Md. Nahian Rahman, Syeda Saima Alam, Mahbubur Rahman, Shaidaton Nisha, Khaleda Islam, Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity among Households in Selected Areas in Bangladesh. Journal of Food Security, 8 (2). 72-76. January 2020. doi:10.12691/jfs-8-2-5

1. Introduction

Adequate food in terms of quantity and quality for all people at all time is vital to a nation growth. Consuming less food in long terms leads to hunger and starvation [1]. Indicators of food security include availability of food, economic and physical access to food, adequate food utilization and sustainably having access to adequate food [2]. Food insecurity exists when all people, at all times, secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life [3]. During food insecurity, people are not consuming enough food for an active and healthy life. This is due to the unavailability of food, inadequate purchasing power or inappropriate utilization at household level [4]. Household food insecurity can be chronic and transitory in its type. Chronic food insecurity is often the result of extended periods of poverty, lack of assets and inadequate access to productive resources. Transitory household food insecurity is primarily caused by short term shocks and fluctuations in food availability and food access, including year-to-year variations in domestic food production, food prices and household income [5]. Household food insecurity is one of major public health problems in both developing and developed nations [4]. Based on Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report, 805 million (11.3%) global populations were unable to meet their dietary energy supplies in 2012-2014. In developing countries, 791 million people live in hunger, which means 13.5% of the overall population remains underfed [6]. Achieving food security for all people at all times remains a huge challenge for several developing countries.

2. Methods

2.1. Study Setting

The study was conducted in Dhaka, Mymensing, Sylhet and Khulna District in Bangladesh

2.2. Study Design, Period, and Sample Size

A community-based cross sectional study was conducted from January 01 to March 30, 2018. Total 100 households were selected by multistage sampling.

2.3. Sampling Technique

This study was conducted in Dhaka, Mymensing, Sylhet and Khulna District for more than six months before the survey. Multistage sampling technique was used; for the primary sampling units, four districts were randomly selected from the total of 8 districts. Household number was equally distributed to each of the selected districts. Finally, systematic random sampling technique was employed to select households to be visited for data collection.

Data collection method used for this study

Data were collected using pretested and structured questionnaire. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) developed by FANTA and validated for urban and rural was used [7]. Moreover, 12 food groups suggested by FANTA using a 24-h recall method were used to assess Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) [7,8,9]. Questionnaire was initially prepared in English and translated to Bengali and finally back translated to English to check consistency and accuracy by language experts.

Data quality assurance

Enumerators and supervisors were trained for 2 days, 1 week prior to date of data collection on: study objectives, key highlights in methods to assess household food insecurity, data collection and interviewing approach, and data recording. Pretesting was done with 20 households. Data collection was strictly supervised in daily basis. Data were then checked for completeness and consistency before data entry and than exported to SPSS version 23 for further data processing and/or analysis.

Data processing and analysis

Households were classified based on responses to the nine severity items in the HFIAS and coded “0” for “No” and “1” for “Yes.” The procedure for scoring was used as follows: “0” was attributed if the event described by the question never occurred, “1” if it occurred during the previous 30 days. With regard to the occurrence, “1” was attributed if the events rarely occur, “2” sometimes and “3” often. Therefore, responses on the nine HFIAS questions were summed using the SPSS 23 program to create household food security score, with a minimum of “0” and a maximum score of “27.” According to the score, the higher the score, the more the household is vulnerable to food insecurity. The lower the score, the lesser the food insecurity a household experienced. Therefore, HFIAS score of 0-1 is categorized as food secure, 2 and above were considered as food insecure. Households scored 2-7, 8-14 and 15-27 were categorized to be mildly, moderately and severely food insecure households, respectively.

3. Results

3.1. Sociodemographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Households

A total of 100 household heads participated in this study. The mean age of household head was 46.30 years, and majority of the household heads (88%) were males. Larger segment of participants 82% were married, and about 63 (63%) households have 4-6 family members. Besides, households with ≤2 dependent members were 73 (73%), and household heads attended formal education were 83 (83%). In terms of livelihood, among household heads included, 62 (62 %) were self-employed and 49 (49%) had monthly income of 10,001-20,000 Taka. (Table 1).

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents

3.2. Prevalence of Household Food Insecurity in the Study Area

The mean (SD) dietary diversity score of households was 6.13 (±1.31). 23 (23 %) households were poorly diverse dietary consumers (who consume ≤5 food groups), 49 (49%) households belonged to medium dietary diversity category (who consume 6-7 food groups) and 28 % of households are classified as diverse dietary consumers (who consume >7 food groups). Based on set cutoff points, 6 (6%) households classified as mildly food insecure. Households classified as moderately and severely food insecure were 11 (11%) and 2 (2%), respectively (Figure 1).

The study finding reveals as 19 (19%) households worried about food inaccessibility and 23(23%) households were not able to eat the kinds of food they preferred due to lack of resources. Moreover, about 18 (18%) households reported that they did not consume a variety of food they prefer, 24 (24%) ate unwanted food, 28 (28%) ate small amount meal and 19 (19%) ate few meals per day. The proportion of households who experienced lack of food to eat was 3 (3%) and going to bed without eating were 4 (4%) based on the findings of this study (Table 2).

Figure 1. Household food security status

Table 2. Occurrence of HFIAS conditions

Figure 2. HFIAS domain showing percentage distribution of households

3.3. Domains of Household Food Insecurity

The nine items can further be summarized into three major domains: (I) feelings of uncertainty or anxiety about the household food supplies (represented by item 1), (II) perceptions that household food is of insufficient quality and food type preference (signified by items 2-4), and (III) insufficient food intake and its physical consequences (items 5-9). The computed percentage for anxiety and uncertainty domains was 19 (19%), for the insufficient food quality domain 23 (23%) and insufficient food intake and its physical costs domain was 28 (28%) in the study area (Figure 2).

4. Discussion

This study looked at the level of household food insecurity using validated HFIAS. A total of 19% households were food insecure (6%, 11 %and 2%, mildly, moderately and severely food insecure, respectively). The state of household food insecurity (37.6%) identified in this study was analogous with studies done in Shashemene (36%), Kenya (38%) and national report (35%) [10,11,12,13]. However, it was lower than findings reported by studies conducted in South Delhi and Malda district of India (77.2 and 68.38%), Kinshasa (70%), Addis Ababa city (75 and 58.2%), Dire Dawa town (43%), Farta district (70.7%), Manna district (42.9%), Offa district (57%) and Boloso Sore district (65.5%) [14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. The possible reason to variation might be the coincidence of the data collection with a harvest season, where food is more available and the prices are relatively low. Thus, lower household food insecurity in this study might be associated with harvesting season of the year where the study was performed. In contrary, the finding observed in this study tends to be higher than the findings of some studies such as Pakistan (19%), Humbo (28.4%) and urban areas of Ethiopia (28.0%) [21,22,23]. The disparity might be due to the agro-ecological differences in settings and socioeconomic variations among study areas.

5. Limitations of the Study

Data collection was done by HFIAS (relies on the recall of events occurred in the last four weeks). Concurrence of study period with harvest season might underestimate the situation of household food insecurity in the setting. Besides, overestimation or underestimation related to monthly income and expenditure of household were the possible limitations of this study.

6. Conclusions

The findings shown as higher extent of households were food insecure in the study area than national rate. Municipality, health and agriculture sector, and other stakeholders need to take action toward improving household food security state in the study area. Actions should focus on: strengthening micro-finance and small business enterprise to increase access to food via amplified income, design strategies on household food security program [e.g., Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP)]; strengthening family planning methods, stabilization of food markets/prices and income generating activities should be encouraged. Besides, backup of saving practice to ensure resilience for food insecure households is also needed. Further studies are desirable to come across seasonal variations of household food insecurity in urban setting.

References

[1]   | Gebre GG. Dimensions of Urban Food Insecurity: the Case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. J Agric Econ Rural Dev. 2014; 2(1): 1-9.
[2]   | Food Security Concepts and Frameworks, in EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme. 2008, FAO.
[3]   | Bryceson DF. Nutrition and the commoditization of food in sub-Saharan Africa. Soc Sci Med. 1989; 28(5): 425-40.
[4]   | Worku Endale ZBM, Azeb A, Akilew AA. Food Insecurity in Farta District, Northwest Ethiopia: a community based cross-sectional study. BMC Res Notes. 2014; 7: 130.
[5]   | Mustaquim MIDM. Food Insecurity and Indian Muslims. IOSR J Humanit Soc Sci. 2013; 11 (1): 121-6.
[6]   | MOH. Training course on the management of severe acute malnutrition. In: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 2013.
[7]   | Gebreyesus SH, Lunde T, Mariam DH, Woldehanna T, Lindtjørn B. Is the adapted Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) developed internationally to measure food insecurity valid in urban and rural households of Ethiopia? BMC Nutr. 2015; 1(2): 2-10.
[8]   | Jennifer Coates AS, Paula Bilinsky. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) for measurement of food access: Indicator Guide, Version 3. August 2007.
[9]   | Swindale A, Bilinsky P: Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) for measurement of household food access: indicator guide FANTA III. September 2006; 2.
[10]   | Kaloi B, Tayebwa B, Bashaasha B. Food security status of households in Mwingi District, Kenya. Afr Crop Sci Conf Proc. 2005; 7: 867-73.
[11]   | Mitiku A, Fufa B, Tadese B. Empirical analysis of the determinants of rural households food security in Southern Ethiopia: The case of Shashemene District. Basic Res J Agric Sci Rev. 2012; 6(1): 132-9.
[12]   | Belachew T, Hadley C, Lindstrom D, Gebremariam A, Michael KW, Getachew Y, Lachat C, Kolsteren P. Gender differences in food insecurity and morbidity among adolescents in southwest Ethiopia. Pediatrics. 2011; 127(2): e398-405.
[13]   | Abo T, Kuma B. Determinants of food security status of female-headed households: the case of Wolaita Sodo town, South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, Ethiopia. Int J Sci Foot Prints. 2015; 3(2): 8-24.
[14]   | Bogale Gebeyehu GR, Tebeje M. Rural households food security and livelihood strategies: the case of Offa woreda, in wolaita Sodo Zuria, Southern Nation, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia. IJRESS. 2014; 4(7)91-104.
[15]   | Chinnakali P, Upadhyay RP, Shokeen D, Singh K, Kaur M, Arvind K, Singh A, Goswami A, Yadav K, Pandav CS. Prevalence of household-level food insecurity and its determinants in an Urban Resettlement Colony in North India. J Health Popul Nutr. 2014; 32(2): 227-36.
[16]   | Ismail M. Status of food security in some selected villages in Malda District. Soc Sci. 2012; 2: 64-87.
[17]   | Lebailly P, Muteba Kalala D. Characteristics of Urban Food insecurity: the case of Kinshasa. Afr Rev Econ Financ. 2011; 3(1): 58-68.
[18]   | Leza T, Kuma B. Determinants of rural farm household food security in Boloso Sore District of Wolaita Zone in Ethiopia. Asian J Agric Ext Econ Sociol. 2015; 5(2): 57-68.
[19]   | Mequnent Muche BETK. Determinants of household food security among Southwest Ethiopia rural households. Asian J Agric Res. 2014; 8(5): 248-58.
[20]   | Ismail M, Mustaquim DM. Food Insecurity and Indian Muslims. IOSR J Humanit Soc Sci. 2013; 11(1): 121-6.
[21]   | Guja MM. Household food security status and coping strategies in Humbo Wereda, SNNPR, Ethiopia. Int J Sci Basic Appl Res. 2012; 6(6): 77.
[22]   | Bashirab MK, Schilizzi S, Pandita R. Livestock and rural household food security: the case of small farmers of the Punjab, Pakistan working paper 1207. School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia; 2012.
[23]   | Shone M, Demissie T, Yohannes B, Yohannis M. Household food insecurity and associated factors in West Abaya district, Southern Ethiopia, 2015. Agric Food Secur. 2017; 6(2): 1-9.