Evaluation of nutritional status of familis in the household of Baft city in Kerman with their socioeconomic parameters

Abstract

Introduction: Food security at the individual, family, national, regional and global levels would be achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to adequate, healthy and nutritious food for meeting the needs and priorities of a healthy and active life. The purpose of this study was to examine the status of food security and related socioeconomic factors in households of Baft city, 1396. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 702 households in three comprehensive health centers located in three areas of Baft. Individuals were selected randomly using the list of households covered by each center. The participants in the study were married women aged 18 to 54 yeard old, so that single, divorced, wife died and people over the age of 54 were excluded from the study. Personal-economic and social self-made questionnaires and the validated USDA food security questionnaire 18, were previously verified as validated questionnaires. Results: In this study, the mean age of female participants who were considered as head of household was 34.00 ± 0.9. The mean weight of subjects was 63.3 ± 0.4, the height of the subjects was 160.4 ± 0.2 mm, and the body mass index was 24.6 ± 0.1. Participants in the study were divided into four levels of food security based on the obtained score. So the score of zero to two was assumed as the safe food group, three to seven points in the food insecure food group without hunger, eight to twelve were considered in the food insecure food group with moderate starvation and more than thirteen points was propsed in the food insecure food group with a severe hunger. The highest number of people (460 people) were at the level of one and the lowest number (5 people) belonged to the fourth level. Households at a safe food level had more levels of food security, more vitamin supplements and minerals consumption than other households. There was a significant relationship between the socio-economic factors of the studied families (household size, home area and number of amenities) and the level of food security in individuals. There was a positive correlation between the household size and food security level (R = 0.142 and p <0.001), however the relationship between food security level with home area and number of amenities was reverse (R = -0.093 and p <0.005, R = 0.73 and p <0.001). Conclusion: Based on the present study, the factors affecting food security for women in the city of Baft could provide effective operational solutions to improve the food security in areas that may be affecte by food insecurity. The results of this study indicate that the city of Baft is curkently in the safe food area before the crisis.