Food insecurity status and determinants among Urban Productive Safety Net Program beneficiary households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background Measuring household food insecurity in specific geographic areas provides vital information that enables appropriate and effective intervention measures to be taken. To that end, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of food insecurity and associated factors among Urban Productive Safety Net Program (UPSNP) beneficiary households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 624 UPSNP beneficiary households in nine districts of Addis Ababa from June to July 2019. A multi-stage sampling method was used; study participants were selected using a simple random sampling technique after establishing the proportionally allocated sample size for 9 districts. Data were collected by trained personnel using a pretested, structured questionnaire. The outcome variable was food insecurity as measured by Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), a tool developed by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Scale (FANTA) and validated for developing countries, including Ethiopia. A binary (crude odds ratio [COR]) and multivariable (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]) logistic regression analysis were employed at 95% CI (confidence interval). From the bivariate analysis, factors having a p-value<0.25 were included in the multivariable analysis. From the multivariable analysis, any variable at p-value < 0.05 at 95% CI was declared significantly associated with household food insecurity. Model fitness was also checked using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test with p-value>0.05. Results The prevalence of household food insecurity was 77.1% [95%CI:73.8-80.7] during the month prior to the survey. Illiteracy of household head [AOR: 2.56; 95%CI:1.08-6.07], family size of 4 or more [AOR: 1.87, 95%CI:1.08-3.23], high dependency ratio [AOR: 3.95; 95%CI:1.31-11.90], household lack of access to credit [AOR:2.85; 95%CI:1.25-6.49], low household income [AOR: 4.72; 95%CI:2.32-9.60] and medium household income [AOR: 9.78; 95%CI:4.29-22.35] were significantly associated with household food insecurity. Conclusion We found that three in four of Addis Ababa's UPSNP beneficiary households were food-insecure. Implementation of measures to improve household income, minimize the dependency ratio of households, and arrange access to credit services are paramount ways to tackle food insecurity problems in Addis Ababa.