Maternal and Child Dietary Diversity and Food Security among Households in Rural and Urban Locations in Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria

Background: Maternal and child under-nutrition is responsible for millions of deaths among women of childbearing age and significant disability adjusted life years (DALYs) among children younger than five years. This work was designed to assess the maternal and child dietary diversity and food security among households in rural and urban locations in Umuahia North LGA. Methodology: The respondents were selected using standard methods, the socio-economics, dietary diversity score and food security status were evaluated using standard questionnaires. The statistical analysis was also determined. Results: The results showed that the majority of respondents were married both in rural and urban locations in Umuahia North LGA (91.7%). The educational level of the respondents revealed that 18.0% and 26.6% in the urban and rural area respectively, had secondary education while 31.9% and 21.8% of the respondents in the urban and rural area had tertiary education. All of the respondents (100%) were of the Igbo ethic group, The occupation of the respondents showed that 27.8% of the respondents were civil servants, 16.3% and 11.5% were residing in the urban and rural areas respectively while 26.0% were traders and 15.0% artisans, the family type of 100% of the respondents was monogamy. Monthly income of the respondents showed that 10.9% of rural residents were low-income earners while only 7.1% were high income earners and the urban residents were 25.2% and 24.8% of Middle-income earners and High-income earners, respectively.  For respondents’ source of income, 65.1% (30.7% urban and 34.3% rural) received their income source from their husbands, 9.8% of respondents (1.8% in the urban area and 7.9% in the rural area) had a household size of 8 members and above, The research showed that 9.8% and 11.8% of children in urban and rural households, respectively had a low dietary diversity, 13.0% in urban households and 21% in rural households had a medium dietary diversity while 27.2% and 17.2% in the urban and rural households had a high dietary diversity. The food security status of households in rural and urban locations were 15.1% and 28.9% of households in rural and urban locations were food secure and 18.1% of urban households and 18.3% of rural households were mildly food insecure while 2.9% of urban households and 16.6% of rural households were food insecure.