Climate variability, gender relations and nutritional status of children and adults in Rudewa village, Tanzania

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine gender relations and nutritional status of children and adults in Rudewa-Mbuyuni Village, Kilosa District as influenced by climate variability. A face to face interview was conducted using questionnaires to obtain data from 158 respondents. Three focus group discussions were held to supplement the information captured through interviews. Anthropometric measurements of height, weight and Mid Upper Arm Circumference were performed to assess the Body Mass Index (BMI) of household members as a nutritional status indicator.The BMI of 124 children (52 boys and 72 girls) was assessed. The 24-hour dietary recall technique was used to assess household food consumption. Data was analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software. About 73 %of the respondents were male and 27% were female. Most respondents were within the age range of 20t060years (73 %), 75% were married, about 86% owned a house and 93 %were farmers. Food shortage was experienced by 82 % of households with 60% purchasing food for consumption during the farming season. Most respondents (88 %) were aware of climate change and linked it with changing rainfall and temperature regimes, and 74 % indicated that climate variability had great impact on food production. The BMI for adult respondents (70 %) was normal, 10 % were underweight, 20 % were either overweight or obese. About 15% of the boys and 8 % of the girls were overweightand 12% of boys and 8% of girls were underweight.There is evidencethat the majority of households in Rudewa-Mbuyuni do not meet their daily nutritional requirements due to food shortages induced by erratic rainfall, linked to climate change; with differential impacts on nutrition status across gender groups.