Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of reported food insufficiency associated socio-demographic factors and health indicators in rural Tanzania.
Design: A cross-sectional study.
Setting: A rural community in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Subjects: Eight hundred and ninety nine individuals aged 15-36 years. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect information on socio-demographic factors, health indicators and food insufficiency. Participants were tested for HIV-1 using saliva samples.
Results: The prevalence of food insufficiency was 25.3% with no sex difference. After controlling for potential confounders age (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 1.05; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.02-1.08), low education level (AOR = 4.73; CI: 1.30-17.11), being a peasant (AOR = 2.29; CI: 1.04-5.04), poor self-rated health status (AOR = 4.35; CI: 1.71-11.00) and having health problems (AOR = 2.23; CI: 1.21-4.08) were associated with food insufficiency among women but not men. In unadjusted analysis, women with food insufficiency had over twice the odds of testing HIV positive although the association did not reach statistical significance (AOR = 2.12; CI: 0.87-5.19) in adjusted analysis.
Conclusions: Food insufficiency was prevalent in rural Tanzania. It was associated with sociodemographic factors and health indicators among women but not men. Our findings suggest that food insufficiency may play a role in increasing vulnerability to HIV infection particularly among women however; more research is needed to explore further this relationship.