Assessment of the Influence of Climate Change on Nutritional and Health Status of Children in Rural Communities of Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja

This study investigated household knowledge of influence of climate change on nutritional and health status of children in rural communities. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of one thousand and forty (1,040) households in five selected communities in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. The sample consisted of two hundred and eight (208) households that were selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire titled “Household Knowledge of Climate Change (HKCC)” was used as the instrument for data collection. Data collected was imputed into the SPSS (25) software package and results were presented in tables 1-3. The study discovered that majority of households (61.4%) in rural communities do not have adequate knowledge on climate change and its influence on nutritional and health status of children. 12.7% were of the view that provision of physical and social amenities by government will go a long way in increasing the knowledge level of households, while 32% were of the view that climate change awareness campaign is a better strategy for increasing the knowledge level of households, 20.8% of the households favored adequate knowledge of low-cost nutritional diets and proper management of available food, 18.2% of the households reported increased financial supports for research is a better strategy. Conclusively, climate change can be ameliorated in adopting good management strategies. The study recommended that, awareness campaign by relevant agencies should be heightened, where adequate knowledge of low-cost nutritional diets and proper management of available food among household will be pursued.