Adolescent mental well-being and household food security - insights from a cross-sectional study in Irewole local government area, Osun State, Nigeria

Q: What relationship does the study examine between food security and adolescents’ mental health?

The study examines how household food insecurity relates to adolescent mental well-being in Osun State, Nigeria.

Q: How were mental well-being and food insecurity measured?

Mental well-being was assessed with the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF), while food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS).

Q: What were the key findings about adolescents from severely food-insecure households?

Adolescents from severely food-insecure households had significantly lower mental well-being, with much higher odds of flourishing among those from food-secure homes.

Sep 28, 2026

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Adolescent nutritional access shapes both physical development and mental well-being, especially where resources are limited. In Nigeria, evidence linking household food security with adolescents’ mental health remains scarce. A cross-sectional survey of 400 heads of households and adolescents in Osun State assessed food insecurity using HFIAS and adolescent mental well-being using the MHC-SF. Analysis used IBM SPSS, showing markedly higher odds of flourishing well-being among food-secure and moderately food-insecure groups, compared with severely food-insecure adolescents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Home food security and mental well-being

Folorunso etal. BMC Public Health (2026) 26:30 BMC Public Health [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-25702-9](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-25702-9) RESEARCH Open Access Adolescent mental well-being and household food security: insights from a cross-sectional study in Irewole local government area, Osun State, Nigeria Oluwabunmi Emmanuel Folorunso 1*, Temitope Olumuyiwa Ojo2, Adesanmi Akinsulore3 and Gideon Inyangudo2 Abstract Adolescents’ nutritional access plays a critical role in physical development and mental well-being, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Despite its importance, empirical evidence on the linkage between household food security and adolescent mental health remains limited in low-and middle-income countries such as Nigeria. This study investigates this association in Osun State, Nigeria, aiming to examine the relationship between household food insecurity and adolescent mental health. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 400 heads of households and adolescents was conducted in Osun State, Nigeria, using a multi-stage sampling. Adolescents were administered the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) questionnaire to assess their mental well-being status. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) questionnaire was used to assess the level of food insecurity among the heads of households. IBM SPSS version 25 was utilized for the analysis of the data. Results: Among the adolescents, 210 (51 . 7%) were male, with an average age of 15 ± 2.5 years. The majority, 366 (90 . 1%), were in-school adolescents. One hundred and sixty-six (39 .4%) were from households with low-wealth status. Most adolescents, 308 (75%), belonged to severely food-insecure households. One hundred and twenty-five (30%) had flourishing mental well-being, 241 (59%) had mild mental well-being, and 40 (9%) had languishing mental wellbeing. The odds of flourishing mental well-being were 13 times higher for those from food-secure households [OR: 13. 1, 95% CI: 5.5–31. 2, p < 0. 001], and threefold for moderately food-insecure individuals [OR: 3. 2, 95% CI: 1.7–6. 2, p = 0 . 001], compared to their severely food-insecure counterparts. Conclusion: This research highlights the key role of household food security in adolescent mental well-being. Adolescents from food-insecure homes have significantly lower mental well-being. To address this, strategies should be implemented to improve household food production, provide comprehensive nutrition education, and integrate mental well-being assessments into school health programs, ensuring early identification and intervention. Keywords Household, Food security, Mental wellbeing, Adolescents *Correspondence: Oluwabunmi Emmanuel Folorunso[olubunmiemmanuel88@gmail.com](olubunmiemmanuel88@gmail.com) 1Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Medical Science, Ondo City, Ondo State, Nigeria 2Department of Community Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria 3Department of Mental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you w

FAQs

What relationship does the study examine between food security and adolescents’ mental health?

The study examines how household food insecurity relates to adolescent mental well-being in Osun State, Nigeria.

How were mental well-being and food insecurity measured?

Mental well-being was assessed with the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF), while food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS).

What were the key findings about adolescents from severely food-insecure households?

Adolescents from severely food-insecure households had significantly lower mental well-being, with much higher odds of flourishing among those from food-secure homes.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo