Development and Evaluation of a Sustainable Campus Nutrition Intervention in Public Tertiary Institutions in Cross River State

Abstract

Food insecurity and low dietary diversity poses the biggest public health concerns in most tertiary educational institutions imposes an adversely effect on the student population, their overall well-being, and their academic performance. This study determinines the effectiveness of a sustainable campus nutrition intervention in enhancing food security, dietary diversity, and improve academic performance of students in public tertiary institution in Cross River State. This study adopted a mixed-method quasi-experimental research design with participants’ 398 students drawn through a multi-stage sampling technique from seven public tertiary institutions in the state. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, the Food Insecurity Experience Scale , 24-hour dietary recalls, institutional cumulative GPA record, Focus Group Discussions , and Key Informant Interviews . Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics techniques. Result showed that the students recorded mean dietary diversity score of 12.84 + 3.27 at baseline but this improved to 18.76 + 2.91 post-intervention (46.1%). Similarly, the mean food insecurity score recorded a significant decline from 17.42 + 4.15 baseline score, to 10.21+ 3.36, thus a 41.4% reduction in food insecurity levels of the students. The mean GPA also increased from 2.68 + 0.59 at baseline to 3.14 + 0.63 post-intervention. The result of paired- sample t-test indicates significant improvements for dietary diversity (t=18.62; p<0.001), food security (t=16.48; p<0.001) and students’ GPA (t=9.37; p<0.001). There revealed a positive and statistically significant association between dietary diversity and GPA (r= 0.641, p < 0.001), while a significant negative association was noted between food insecurity and GPA (r=-0.587, p < 0.001). Multiple regression showed that jointly dietary diversity and food insecurity explain 53.4% variance in the academic performance (R=0.534; F=226.71; p<0.001). In qualitative analyses, students described the intervention as very instrumental in reduction of hunger, improvement in diet quality, participation in class activities and attendance to lectures. The study concludes that sustainable in-campus nutrition intervention programmes could result in improved dietary diversity, reduce the prevalence of food insecurity and significantly enhance academic achievement of the students of tertiary institutions. Thus, serve as an empirical ground for setting up sustainable policies to reduce in- campus hunger, enhance student’s productivity, and achieve Nigeria’s human capital development aspirations.

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