(P24-002-23) Households’ Food Consumption Expenditure Influenced Dietary Diversity Scores and Nutritional Status of Mothers and Under-Five Children in Nigeria

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of household food consumption expenditure on dietary diversity score and nutritional status of mothers and children under five in Ekiti state.

Methods: A total of 350 mother-child pairs were recruited for the study through a multi-stage sampling technique. The Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) household questionnaire was used to measure the household food consumption expenditure. The household dietary diversity scores were measured using the standard FAO household dietary diversity score questionnaire. Anthropometric data were measured by standard methods. The anthropometric indices for children under five were expressed as Z-scores derived from reference population and calculated using WHO Anthro 3.2 software. Multiple linear regression models were used to examine associations between socio-demographic, household dietary diversity score and nutritional status.

Results: The study revealed that about 40% of the household’s income was spent on food consumption in the study location. Most households had a size of between 3 and 4 people. The household dietary diversity (HDD) showed that 40% of the participants had either medium dietary diversity (MDD) or low dietary diversity (LDD) scores. The nutrition status of under-five children indicated that 12 and 13% were underweight and stunted respectively. The nutrition status of mothers showed that 8, 29 and 9% were underweight, overweight and obese respectively. There was a strong association between household food consumption expenditure and dietary diversity score (P < 0.05). The level of education, income and age of mothers were found to be significant (P < 0.05) and positively associated with household dietary diversity.

Conclusions: The study showed that expenditure on food contributed huge percentage of household expenditure. However, the study revealed significant percent of the participants were either medium dietary diversity or low dietary diversity.

Funding Sources: This did not receive any funding from external sources. This study was supported by a postgraduate student through personal fund.