Research Article

Household Food Insecurity Predicts Childhood Undernutrition: A Cross-Sectional Study in West Oromia (Ethiopia)

Table 2

Perceptions of household food security and household hunger situations of the study settings.

Household food insecurity access conditionsCategories of food insecurity (access) and prevalence, n (%)
Food secureRarelySometimesFrequently

Reports worrying because household would not have enough food, last 30 days232 (44.2)45 (8.6)206 (39.2)42 (8.0)
Reports having household member had to eat the kinds of foods not preferred because of a lack of resources, last 30 days225 (42.9)59 (11.2)185 (35.2)56 (10.7)
Reports eating a limited variety of foods due to a lack of resources, last 30 days241 (45.9)91 (17.3)143 (27.2)50 (9.5)
Reports household member have to eat foods that really did not want to eat because of a lack of resources to obtain other types of food, last 30 days340 (64.8)95 (18.1)83 (15.8)7 (1.3)
Reports household member had to eat a smaller meal than needed because there was not enough food, last 30 days318 (60.6)72 (13.7)125 (23.8)10 (1.9)
Reports household member had to eat fewer meals because there was not enough food, last 30 days433 (82.5)38 (7.2)51 (9.7)3 (0.6)
Reports not having food of any kind in the house because of lack of resources to get food, last 30 days447 (85.1)36 (6.9)42 (8.0)0 (0.0)
Reports household member going to sleep at night hungry because there was not enough food, last 30 days489 (93.1)13 (2.5)23 (4.4)0 (0.0)
Reports household member going a whole day and night without eating anything because there was not enough food, last 30 days526 (98.2)5 (1.0)4 (0.8)0 (0.0)

Household hunger categories and HHS (%)Food secure (HHS: 0)31.0%
Mild food insecurity (HHS: 1)56.6%
Moderate food insecurity (HHS: 2–3)12.4%
Severe food insecurity (HHS: 4–6)0.0%

“Rarely” is once or twice in the past 30 days preceding the survey; “sometimes” is 3–10 times in the past 30 days preceding the survey; “frequently/often” is more than 10 times in the past 30 days preceding the survey.