Determinants of Food Security Status of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Patients: Evidence from Menelik II Hospital, Ethiopia
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Date
2023-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The fact that food insecurity is a critical problem among individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus initiated us to conduct an investigation on this issue. The objective of the study was to examine food security status and its determinants in individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus and actively attending antiretroviral therapy at Menelik II Hospital, Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 262 adult patients. These respondents were selected from the study population using a systematic random sampling technique. Food security status and its determinants were assessed using two types of food insecurity measures such as Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and using Dietary Diversity Score. The socio-demographic data were collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire during individual interviews. An ordered logistic regression model was employed to determine the effects of various independent factors over the dependent variable or food security status of respondents. The prevalence of food insecurity was found to be high in the study population. The result revealed that, out of 262 respondents, about 56.8% of them were severely food insecure whereas 13 %, 12.6% and 17.6 were categorized under rarely food insecure, mild food insecure and moderately food insecure respectively. Besides this, the severity of food insecurity was 60.3% in male and 53.6% among female respondents. Regarding to the dietary diversity score, the result revealed that, majority of the respondents (approximately 46%) were scored low levels of dietary diversity in the last 24 hours at the time of the study. The regression analysis result indicated that, all of the independent variables such as sex, age, marital status, family size, education and income level significantly influenced the food security status of the study population at P-value<0.05. The study also highlights the importance of food security and nutrition programming as an integral part of health and socio-economic well-being. Food insecurity is an emerging problem among people living with human immunodeficiency syndrome. This population group should be focused on measures to improve food security intervention program at all level. Moreover, efforts should be made to address the burden of food insecurity taking into account the identified determinants of food security status in the target population.
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Keywords
Food Insecurity, Dietary Diversity, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Determinants, Ethiopia