Socio-economic status and hunger among orphans and vulnerable children households in Lagos State, Nigeria

Background: HIV/AIDS has contributed to increasing orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria. A measure of vulnerability is household hunger.
Objective: To assess level of household hunger and associated factors among OVC households in Lagos State.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 1300 OVC households in 5 selected Local Government Areas. The LGAs were selected using the Household Vulnerability Assessment index. Data collection was by personal interview of households’ heads/ caregivers using a structured questionnaire capturing socio-demographic, household economic profile and food-related variables. A multivariate logit model was fitted to identify independent predictors of household hunger after adjusting for confounding variables.
Results: The population density was 5.1 and 52.8% were females. A larger proportion of females (84.6%) than males (78.3%) reported that they had no food to eat in the last four weeks prior the survey. Poor household economic status (OR=1.41, CI: 1.03-1.92), age and marital status of caregiver were independent predictors of household hunger. The odds of hunger increased with caregiver’s age; higher in households headed by never married (OR=3.99, CI: 1.15-13.89) and divorced/separated caregivers (OR=2.39, CI: 1.11-5.12).
Conclusion: OVC households experienced severe hunger. Household economic strengthening would be useful strategy to mitigate the nutrition challenges of OVC in Lagos state.

Keywords
Orphans; vulnerable; children; households food security; caregivers; economy; Nigeria.