Food insecurity prevalence among tertiary students in Ghana

Abstract Background Food insecurity (FI) is a collective term for inadequate access to available, affordable, and safe nutritious food. FI could affect students’ health and academic performance adversely. Currently, there is a paucity of research on food insecurity among tertiary students in Ghana. This study determined the prevalence of food insecurity among tertiary students in an Eastern city of Ghana. Materials and methods A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 411 respondents from four tertiary institutions. The United States Department of Agriculture Adult Household Food Security Survey (HFSS) Module tool was used to collect information on students’ food insecurity status. Data were entered with Epi-data version 3.0 software and then exported into Stata/MP version 16.0 for analysis. For all statistical tests, a p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results The prevalence of food insecurity was 61.0 %. Of these, 40.4 % had very low food security and 20.2% had low food security. Multiple logistic regression showed that the odds of food insecurity were significantly higher for students who did not have family support [AOR=2.56 (95% CI:1.17 - 5.63), p= 0.019] as compared to those who had family support and students whose fathers were farmers compared to fathers who were employed [AOR=2.71 (95% CI:1.49 - 4.92), p= 0.001]. Conclusion The study found high levels of food insecurity among tertiary students in Hohoe. An insight into food insecurity among this at-risk population group requires further investigation and action. There is an urgent need for research to better understand the severity and persistence of food insecurity among higher education students in Ghana.