GENDER-BASED PLANNING OF MEALS AT THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL IN GHANA

Planning is important for the management and sustainable use of resources. To ensure sustainable quality meals, there is the need to plan meals in the home. Planning of meals can best be achieved if gender, especially, women who are the key people responsible for meals in the home, are involved. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the determinants of gender-based meal planning and the frequency of meals in Ghana using structured questionnaires and a multistage sampling technique. A total of 3521 households were interviewed across fourteen regions of Ghana, to identify how males and females plan their meals at the household level, and the key players involved in the choice of meals in the home. The country is stratified into regions and the regions further stratified into urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Purposive sampling was used to select households for the survey considering social classes and livelihoods of the people in the communities. Data obtained were entered in Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) version 16 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY) for analysis using the Pearson’s chi square at a P-value of 0.05 to determine statistical differences between gender. Associations between factors that influence frequencies of meals were determined by Cramér's V. Findings showed that, women are mostly responsible for meals at the household level. The study also showed that most Ghanaian households eat three times per day, but their meals are often not planned. Furthermore, the findings of the study suggest that educational attainment and income do not have significant impact on the frequency of meals and gender-based planning of meals in the home. The study showed that 67.41% of households involved in the study were headed by men but those responsible for cooking were mostly women (63.71%). Only a few households planned their meals. Of these, women were mostly responsible for the provision of meals. Therefore, it is important to consider gender in the planning of meals to ensure good nutrition and food availability to the household throughout the year.

规划对于资源的管理和可持续利用至关重要。为保障家庭膳食的可持续性与质量，居家膳食规划不可或缺。若要实现高效的膳食规划，需充分考虑性别因素——尤其是作为家庭膳食主要负责人的女性群体的参与。为此，本研究采用结构化问卷与多阶段抽样技术，旨在探究加纳性别视角下膳食规划的影响因素及家庭膳食频率。研究覆盖加纳14个地区，共访谈3521户家庭，以明确男女在家庭层面的膳食规划方式及家庭膳食选择中的核心参与者。研究将加纳按地区分层，各地区进一步划分为城市、城郊及农村区域；结合社区居民的社会阶层与生计状况，采用目的抽样法选取受访家庭。所得数据录入统计产品与服务解决方案（Statistical Product and Service Solutions, SPSS）16.0版本（IBM SPSS，美国纽约州阿蒙克）进行分析，采用皮尔逊卡方检验（P值设为0.05）以确定不同性别群体间的统计差异，影响膳食频率的各因素间关联通过克莱姆V系数（Cramér's V）分析确定。研究结果显示，女性是家庭膳食的主要负责人；多数加纳家庭每日进食三次，但膳食规划往往缺失；受教育程度与收入水平对家庭膳食频率及性别视角下的膳食规划无显著影响。数据表明，67.41%的受访家庭为男性户主，但烹饪工作主要由女性承担（占比63.71%）；仅有少数家庭进行膳食规划，而在这些家庭中，膳食供应仍以女性为主导。因此，在膳食规划中纳入性别视角至关重要，这有助于保障家庭全年的营养状况与食物可及性。