Food and Nutrition Security in Families with Boys and Girls under 10 Years of Age with Malnutrition in Galapa, Atlantico Colombia

The objective of the study was to determine the level of food and nutritional security in families of children under 10 years of age with malnutrition attended in the program for growth and development of the hospital State Social Enterprise of Galapa (ESE Galapa) in Galapa (Atlantico, Colombia). A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample randomly selected of 170 families that attended the program during 2015, with 70% of minimum attendance required. The variables considered were, social and demographic conditions, nutritional status and level of food security. Food security status was classified using the Latin-American and Caribbean Scale of Food Safety (ELCSA) as an instrument for data collection. Forty-five-point three percent of the families presented food and nutritional insecurity, families with children in risk of malnutrition and obesity presented major trend of food and nutritional severe insecurity. The prevalence of the nutritional condition as well as the food and nutritional insecurity of this population is related directly on the parent’s occupation, their income and their ages, since 57.64% was unemployed, 39.41% of the parents only earn a minimum wage and 68.3% are between 15 and 30 years old. The study showed that families with boys and girls with malnutrition are on low food insecurity level corresponding to 25.9% among all.