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Due to increasing degradation of upland fields and in the face of erratic rains and increasing occurrence of droughts and floods and increasing food prices, smallholder farmers in many places across sub Saharan Africa engage in wetland cultivation for livelihoods security (Mutambikwa et al., 2000). A cultivatable wetland area is considered prime land, and a desired opportunity that every rural family need for the purpose of food production. Studies have indicated that wetland cultivation significantly contributes to household’s income and food security. Wetland agriculture, however, in Malawi and most of the sub-Saharan African countries is marred with issues of access to land (Simon 2014; Kambewa 2005). Employing mixed methods approach this study attempted to appreciate: 1) how dimba cultivation contribute to household food security and livelihoods resilience, 2) how gender influence access to wetland in Nkhata Bay, and 3) how does the geographic factors of proximity to stream/rivers affect ownership or access to wetland gardens? The study has revealed through exploratory analysis and statistical test i.e. ANOVA that there is significant difference in term of food security between households with dimba and those without dimba. Increase in spatial extent of dimba cultivation between 1990 and 2005 as reveled through land use/cove change analysis further indicates the significance of dimba in the study area. The study has further revealed that in Nkhata Bay, as a patrilocal system, wetland gardens are owned by men, women only get access through their husbands. Women’s access to wetland gardens is further compounded by widowhood, and divorce. Most women lose access to wetland gardens or face challenges accessing wetland gardens when the husband dies.

Although previous work provides a significant baseline for understanding the impact of gender on household decision making and resource (i.e. income and food) allocation, there are gaps in evidence for important groups, including East African pastoralists. Previous authors have noted that pastoralists’ gender roles and relations appear to be resistant to change, potentially impeding household development. This paper attempts to assess the relationship between male and female pastoralists’ income control and household food security and nutritional status in Tanzania. We use three surveys: a household-level livestock health and economics survey, a household food security survey, and an individual woman-level survey on diet, nutritional status, and health. The surveys were administered to 196 pastoralist households from three tribes (Maasai, Sukuma, and Barabaig) in Tanzania in 2012-13. The results support what the majority of the previous studies find, that women’s income has a positive association with dietary diversity but also differ from the previous studies since women’s income has a negative association with household food security. While previous studies show that women’s income will have a larger positive correlation with household food security and dietary diversity than men’s income, our findings show that not only does men’s income have a negative association with household food security and dietary diversity, but also that women’s income does not have a statistically significant, larger positive correlation with household food security and dietary diversity than men’s income. We also find that chicken ownership and education for the head household in the pastoralist communities have a significant positive association with household food security and nutrition status. Advisor: Christopher R. Gustafson

In the U.S. in 2015, 16.6% of households with children experienced food insecurity, which is associated with adverse health outcomes. Yet, little to no research has examined the relationship between food insecurity and asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease. Furthermore, studies of the association between food insecurity and overweight/obesity, an ongoing pediatric health crisis, have yielded mixed findings. Thus, the three aims of this research are: 1) to determine the association between household food security status and asthma in a cross-section of U.S. 3rd graders; 2) to examine the association between repeated exposures to food insecurity in early to mid-childhood and the risk of asthma; and 3) to determine the association between repeated exposures to food insecurity in early to mid-childhood and the risk of overweight/obesity. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), a diverse cohort of school-aged children followed from kindergarten to 8th grade, were analyzed. Household food insecurity was assessed using the validated 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module. Child asthma was assessed by parent report of a clinical diagnosis. Direct anthropometric assessments yielded age- and sex-specific BMI z-scores, categorized as normal or overweight/obese. Multivariate logistic regression models were computed in Aims 1 and 2 to test the association between food insecurity and asthma. In Aim 3, sex-specific multivariable Poisson regression models were used to calculate relative risk for overweight/obesity by exposure to food insecurity. Odds of asthma doubled in children that lived in households that were food-insecure and poor (OR 2.00 [95% CI 1.97 to 2.03]). Any exposure to food insecurity between kindergarten and 8th grade was associated with increased odds of asthma; the highest odds were among those with 2 years of exposure (OR 1.82 [95% CI 1.80 to 1.85]). Two years of exposure (but not fewer or more) also were associated with a 39% higher risk of overweight/obesity in 8th grade (RR 1.39 [95% CI 1.15 to 1.69]). Repeated exposures to household food insecurity increased the risk of both asthma and overweight/obesity in 8th grade. These findings are important for public health policy as well as asthma and obesity prevention efforts.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project is to determine if there is an association between dental caries in children ages 2-4 and household food security status by examining the prevalence of child dental caries and household food security status among 94 children. METHODS: This IRB-approved pilot study was conducted from April-May, 2014, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Participants were the parents of young children (ages 2-4) who were current Dental Clinic patients or Dental Surgery Center patients (n=94). Children were examined for dental caries and parents were administered a food security questionnaire. RESULTS: Dental Clinic patients included those with dental caries (n=19) and those without dental caries (n=28). All Dental Surgery Center patients had dental caries (n=47). Dental caries were present in 69% of children. Of 94 households in the sample, 69% (n=65) were found food secure and 31% (n=29) food insecure. No significant association was found between household food security and dental caries (p=0.6110). The odds of having dental caries was higher for food secure households than food insecure households (OR=1.27). The significant predictors of having dental caries, found from the univariable logistic regressions, were distance to a grocery store (p=0.0486), age of child (p=0.0192), whether the child drinks water (p=0.0155), whether the child drinks other drinks besides water (p=0.0252), whether the child drinks juice (p=0.0378), daily drink consumption besides water (p=0.0005), does the child snack on starchy foods (p=0.0161), does the child snack on vegetables (p=0.0148), does the child snack on sugary foods (p=0.0030), and daily water consumption (p

The recognition that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a major threat to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development has prompted researchers to focus on the economic impacts of the disease. In particular, given the importance of agriculture for livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), researchers have investigated the impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture. Relatively little research has focused on the role agriculture plays in fueling the spread of HIV/AIDS. This study addresses this gap in the literature and examines how agricultural contexts in Kenya influence women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The study uses a regional analysis of Kenya using districts (similar to U.S counties) as administrative units and employs multilevel analysis to examine the impact of the regional agricultural context on women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. This study refers to regional agricultural contexts as agricultural-consumption regimes (ACRs). The term agricultural-consumption regimes (ACRs) draws from longstanding literature which examines how agricultural development in developing countries impacts women’s agricultural productivity, hence their ability to fulfill the consumption needs of their households. ACRs encompass the key production-related factors in the women and development literature - agricultural commercialization (cash crop versus food crop production), land tenure, access to credit, and access to extension services. ACRs also include household survival strategies that women employ to counter constraints in agricultural production such as opportunities for wage employment, membership in cooperatives, and women’s organizations. In examining the impacts of ACRs on women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, the study also takes into account women’s decision-making autonomy and household food security. There is consensus in the HIV/AIDS literature that power imbalances in the household are a major factor driving women’s vulnerability to this disease in sub-Saharan Africa, thus, the importance of examining the links between women’s decision-making autonomy and HIV/AIDS. Regarding household food security, researchers have suggested that people who are food insecure are less likely to act on their knowledge about HIV to prevent infection. Greater household food insecurity may thus increase women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. This study assesses the extent to which ACRs influence women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS net of individual and household-level characteristics such as women’s decision-making autonomy and household food security. The study finds that at the contextual level, after taking into account women’s decision-making autonomy and household food security, women’s tenure security, land holding sizes, cash crop production and membership in women’s is associated with lower vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. By contrast, wage employment, access to credit (proportion of households that were able to access credit in the district) and land titling (proportion of household in the districts with title to land) is associated with women’s increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.The study shows that claims made in the women in development (WID) cross-national literature that context matters for women’s well-being are supported at the sub-national scale, although some relationships are not consistent in all directions with the aforementioned literature. In terms of policy, efforts to safeguard women’s rights to property such as land may be an important component not only for poverty alleviation, but also for HIV/AIDS prevention strategies.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, food production is declining and many people are malnourished. My study asks: (1) what are women doing to meet their household food needs; and (2) how do they perceive opportunities and challenges towards achieving food security. I worked with two women’s groups in a semiarid region that is at risk because of low incomes and agricultural potential. Activity schedules and seasonal calendars show how these women rely equally on their farms and purchases. They photographed enterprises that provide food for their homes and small incomes. Venn diagrams show how the role of outside institutions increases during “bad years” but the women emphasize that their security cannot rely on this support. Food security agencies need to focus on women’s triple role by working with women’s groups to increase the production of crops that can also be sold, and to plan for the distribution of food aid.