Ninth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Limited information is available on the relationship between household food insecurity and nutritional status of Malawian children and women based on a nationally representative sample. We assess the association between food insecurity and nutritional status of Malawian children and women using data from the 2015-2016 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale was used to assess food insecurity. Body mass index (BMI) was used to assess the nutritional status of women, and stunting, wasting, and underweight to assess the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age. The data was analyzed using binary logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression in SPSS 24 to examine the associations between the variables. In severely food-insecure households, 37.1% of children were stunted, 2.7% were wasted, and 5.0% were overweight; 7.2% of women had a BMI below 18.5 kg/m2 while 20.7% of women had a BMI greater than 25.0 kg/m2. There is a significant association between food insecurity and malnutrition among children in Malawi. Among women, food insecurity is associated with overweight.