Food Environment and Nutritional Status of Children Living in Orphanage Homes in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Children living in orphanage homes world-wide often present with nutritional deficiencies. This can be attributed to lack of 
proper food environment which encompasses the availability, accessibility and affordability of food. This study examined the 
food environment and nutritional status of children living in orphanage homes in Ogun State. The study was a descriptive crosssectional survey that adopted the survey research method with 200 children both males and females aged between 5-11years 
were randomly selected from 4 Orphanage homes in Ogun State. Among the children surveyed, 3.2%, 10%, 0.5%, 3.5% were 
normal nutritional status wasted, stunted, underweight, and overweight respectively. There were more girls stunted and wasted 
than boys, more boys were underweight than girls and more girls were overweight than boys. This study showed that food is 
affordable, accessible, and available in the orphanage homes and the food environment does not affect the nutritional status of 
the children living in orphanage homes in Ogun State. In this study, high prevalence of malnutrition was observed among children 
between 5 to 7 years old. The findings of this study showed that prevalence of malnutrition among children living in orphanage 
homes in Ogun State is low.