Household Sociodemographic Characteristics and Food Security Among Residents in Four Agro-Ecological Zones in Ghana

Abstract

About 123 million people, representing 12 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, were projected to have experienced severe food insecurity in 2022. Understanding the correlates of food security critically informs appropriate interventions for sustainable development. This study examines the influence of household socio-demographic characteristics on food security status among residents in four agro-ecological zones in Ghana. The data for the study comes from the 2016 Climate change, Women in Agriculture and Food Security project carried out by the Regional Institute for Population Studies of the University of Ghana. Food security status was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall on food availability, access, utilization, stability and malnutrition which were used to create a composite index. This was categorized yes for food secured and no for not food secured. The Pearson chi-square test was employed to test the association between the dependent variable and independent variables. The binary logistic regression model was used to determine the factors associated with food security status. Results showed that wealth status (p-value =0.008, OR= 3.25), education attainment (p-value =0.059, OR =5.54), locality (p-value= 0.033, OR= 1.40) and ethnicity (p-value= 0.001, OR= 1.75) of households were significant predictors of food security. However, sex, age, marital status, main occupation and religious affiliations did not predict food security. The study recommends that, in order to acquire adequate food security in Ghana, all the four dimensions (availability, accessibility, utilization and stability) of food security should be tackled at the household level. It is further recommended that household socio-demographic characteristics such as locality, education, ethnicity and wealth status should be considered because residents who reside in the rural have communities have different food security status as compared to urban residents and also educated people have the ability to engage in multiple activities which could fetch more income for food than uneducated people when dealing with issues of food security in Ghana.