Mortazavi Zinat, Dorosty Ahmad Reza, Eshraghian Mohammad Reza, Ghaffari Mohtasham, Ansari-Moghaddam Alireza
Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Iran J Public Health. 2021 Apr;50(4):798-805. doi: 10.18502/ijph.v50i4.6006.
Food insecurity can affect health directly or indirectly through its impact on nutritional status. We aimed at determining the effects of nutrition education intervention on household food insecurity in Zahedan, southeast Iran.
The study was conducted using multi-stage sampling method. The first stage was a cross-sectional investigation whereby 2,160 households were studied in Zahedan in 2015. The prevalence of food insecurity was determined and food-insecure households were identified. Household food security status was assessed through the 18-item US Household Food Security Survey Module. In the second stage, based on the determined sample size of 150 households in each group, eligible households were randomly divided into the intervention and control groups. Before the educational intervention, questionnaires including demographic and socioeconomic information were completed for both groups. Then, data analysis was performed and the intervention was conducted on the intervention group. Six months post-intervention, a final assessment was made by interviewing the two groups to complete demographic, socioeconomic, and household food security questionnaires.
The prevalence of food insecurity in the 2,160 households was 58.8%. After the intervention, the number of food-insecure households diminished by 22% in the intervention group, and these households were assigned to the food secure category. After controlling the confounding variables, the educational intervention was significantly effective in reducing food insecurity score (<0.001).
The findings demonstrated the beneficial role of nutritional education and the skills of resource management in modifying nutritional behaviors and improving food security in the study population.
粮食不安全可通过对营养状况的影响直接或间接地影响健康。我们旨在确定营养教育干预对伊朗东南部扎黑丹家庭粮食不安全的影响。
本研究采用多阶段抽样方法。第一阶段为横断面调查，2015年在扎黑丹对2160户家庭进行了研究。确定了粮食不安全的患病率，并识别出粮食不安全家庭。通过18项美国家庭粮食安全调查模块评估家庭粮食安全状况。在第二阶段，根据每组150户家庭的确定样本量，将符合条件的家庭随机分为干预组和对照组。在教育干预之前，为两组完成了包括人口统计学和社会经济信息在内的问卷调查。然后，进行数据分析并对干预组实施干预。干预后六个月，通过对两组进行访谈来完成人口统计学、社会经济和家庭粮食安全问卷，进行最终评估。
2160户家庭中粮食不安全的患病率为58.8%。干预后，干预组中粮食不安全家庭的数量减少了22%，这些家庭被归类为粮食安全家庭。在控制混杂变量后，教育干预在降低粮食不安全得分方面具有显著效果（<0.001）。
研究结果表明营养教育和资源管理技能在改变营养行为和改善研究人群的粮食安全方面具有有益作用。
