Food Security Status and Dietary Diversity of HIV/AIDs Patients in Abuja Metropolis: Implication for Nutrition Awareness Campaign

Abstract

This study analysed food security and dietary diversity of HIV/AIDS patients in Abuja Metropolis, Nigeria: Implication for nutrition awareness campaign. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select a total of 97 HIV/AIDS patients for the study using purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Data were collected using an interview schedule and analysed using frequency, percentage, mean score and binary logit regression. Result revealed that the majority (53.61%) of HIV/AIDS patients were females in their productive age of 35years. Nearly half (49.48%) of them were reportedly single with an average household size of 3persons and were educated up to tertiary level (56.7%). The majority (64.95%) of them were food secured with an average daily calorie intake of 3508.88kcal. Results showed that the majority (41.24%) of the respondents were reported to have high dietary diversity score of ≥ 7. Estimates of Binary logit model revealed an R2 value of 0.5353 indicating 53.5% contributions from the explanatory variables; results further demonstrate that increased education, nutrition awareness, reduced household size, and as well as increased income will improve their food security status in the area. The study calls on Government/Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to increase awareness on HIV/AIDs prevention among young adults of 35 years and below; women, singles, educated people and the artisans as they were found more susceptible to the virus.