Food, Health Habits and Anthropometric Indices of Under-Five Aged Children in Imo State, Nigeria

Author Info

E.N. Onyeneke Amadi JC Anyanwu HO Ekeogu EC C.E. Enyoh

Corresponding Author

C.E. Enyoh
Department of Chemistry, Imo State University, Nigeria

A B S T R A C T

This study examined the food and health habits and anthropometric indices of under-5 aged children in Mbieri, Mbaitolu Local Government Area (L.G.A) in Imo State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional descriptive research design was used for the study. Research methodology included assessment of nutritional status by anthropometric measurements to determine the weight, height and age of children. Dietary intake and food habits assessment was determined using a 24-hour recall. The respondents were mothers with children under five years or caregivers where the mother did not live with the child. Using interviewer-administered questionnaire, information on socio-demographics, dietary history/pattern, food habits, health information and anthropometric measurements of selected pupils was obtained. Data collected were summarised and analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) programme. Results from analysed data were presented in frequencies, percentages and means. Findings of the study showed that 7.6% and 6.5% of the children were moderately and severely stunted, 1.1% and 5.4% were moderately and severely wasted, 10.9% and 7.6% were moderately and severely overweight and 6.5% and 1.1% were moderately and severely underweight. Spearman correlation coefficient tests were used to determine relationships between dietary intake, food habit, health and nutritional status of children under five years. A level of P≤0.05 was used to indicate statistical significance in all analysis.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Fri 13, Nov 2020
Accepted: Sat 19, Dec 2020
Published: Wed 30, Dec 2020

Copyright

© 2023 C.E. Enyoh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JFNM.2020.03.01