SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BOSTAN-ABAD

Background and Aim: Nutrition is one of the basic needs of human society, and providing this need depends on maintaining and establishing food security. We aimed to assess the prevalence of household food insecurity and its related with socio-economic factors among high-school students.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, household data were collected in 2016 from a randomly selected sample of 480 high school students along with their mothers in Bostan-Abad, East Azerbaijan, Iran. Household food security was measured using a validated United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 18-item questionnaire and socio-economic questionnaire were completed through face to face interviews.Results: In this region the prevalence of household food insecurity was 48.3%. Among the variables that investigated birth rank of students, family size, education level of parents, parental job status, household economic status, size of home and parents age were significantly associated with food security status. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that family size, father s occupation, economic status and parental age were the most significant statistical relation with food security status.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the prevalence of food insecurity in the studied households is high. Regarding the fact that parents education level, parents job status and household economic conditions were among the variables that showed the most significant relation with household food security status, therefore, more attention should be paid to the education, job and economic status of the studied population.

کلیدواژه ها:

food security ، Socioeconomic factors ، high school ، students ، Iran