Abstract:
Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and food insecurity was relatively high in Rufiji
District in the mid-2000s, the extent to which the two problems were linked was
empirically unknown. Therefore, a research for this thesis was done with the ultimate
objective to determine the linkage between HIV/AIDS and food security at the household
level. The main indicator of HIV/AIDS was a household having lost an adult member due
to AIDS from January 2003 to December 2005: the main indicator of food security was
dietary energy consumed (DEC) per adult equivalent per day. Data were collected among
225 households between November 2005 and October 2006 through Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA), Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) and structured
interviews. Binary logistic regression was used for analysis and the dependent variable
was food security in terms of food insecure (0) and food secure (I) based on kilocalories
consumed per adult equivalent per day. The independent variables included having been
affected by HIV/AIDS in terms of not affected (0) and affected (I). The results reveal that
the odds for households affected by HIV/AIDS to be food secure were 0.705 times as high
as the odds for households not affected by HIV/AIDS to be food secure. This means that
households affected by HIV/AIDS were less likely to be food secure in comparison with
those not affected by HIV/AIDS. The B statistic for having been affected by HIV/AIDS
was negative (B = -0.350) meaning that being affected by HIV/AIDS had negative impact
small (0.251) and not significant (p = 0.617) implying little impact of HIV/AIDS on food
security. Based on these findings, it is concluded that although being affected by
HIV/AIDS has negative impact on food security, it does not automatically make
households food insecure, especially in a short run, and that some non-HIV/AIDS factors
have bigger impact than that of HIV/AIDS on food security. On the basis of the
on food security. However, the Wald statistic that shows the magnitude of impact was
conclusion, it is recommended that efforts to improve food security among households
affected by HIV/AIDS should consider both HIV/AIDS and non-HIV/AIDS factors.
