title: Household food insecurity and its association with school absenteeism among primary school adolescents in Jimma zone, Ethiopia.
abstract: Household food insecurity and lack of education are two of the most remarkable deprivations which developing countries are currently experiencing. Evidences from different studies showed that health and nutrition problems are major barriers to educational access and achievement in low-income countries which poses a serious challenge on effort towards the achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Evidence on the link between food security and school attendance is very important to address this challenge. This study aimed to assess to what extent food insecurity affects school absenteeism among primary school adolescents.
  
  
  
  A school based cross-sectional study was conducted among primary school adolescents in Jimma zone from October-November, 2013. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the household food security and socio-demographic variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0 after checking for missing values and outliers. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association of school absenteeism and food insecurity with independent variables using odds ratio and 95 % of confidence intervals. Variables with p ≤ 0.25 in the bivariate analyses were entered into a multivariable regression analysis to control for associations among the independent variables.
  
  
  
  The frequency of adolescent school absenteeism was significantly high (50.20 %) among food insecure households (P < 0.001) compared to their peers whose households were food secure (37.89 %). Findings of multivariable logistic regression analysis also showed that household food insecurity [AOR = 2.81 (1.70, 4.76)] was positively associated with poor school attendance while female-headed household [AOR = 0.23 (0.07, 0.72)], urban residence [AOR = 0.52 (0.36, 0.81)] and male-gender [AOR = 0.64 (0.54, 0.74)] were inversely associated with school absenteeism. Household food insecurity was positively associated with lack of maternal education [AOR = 2.26 (0.57, 8.93)] and poor household economic status [AOR = 1.39 (1.18, 2.83)]. However, livestock ownership [AOR = 0.17 (0.06, 0.51)] was negatively associated with household food insecurity.
  
  
  
  Findings of this study showed that household food insecurity has strong linkage with adolescent school absenteeism. Maternal education and household economic status were significantly associated with household food security status. Therefore, national policies and programs need to stress on how to improve family income earning capacity and socioeconomic status to handle household food insecurity which is a key contributor of adolescent school absenteeism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box: 378, Jimma, Ethiopia. dessalegn97@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dessalegn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tamiru
authors.affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box: 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Alemayehu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Argaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box: 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Mulusew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerbaba
authors.affiliation: Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Girmay
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ayana
authors.affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box: 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Aderajew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nigussie
authors.affiliation: Department of Population and Family Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box: 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Tefera
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Belachew
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D020954:Single-Parent Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Absenteeism; Adolescents; Insecurity; Jimma