The Influence of Meal Planning on Family Nutrition and Wellbeing in Selected Rural Communities, Ilorin East, Kwara State

The study investigated the influence of meal planning on family nutrition and wellbeing in selected rural communities, Ilorin East, Kwara state. Five (5) research questions were raised and four (4) hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive research design was adopted for this study. The study adopted multistage sampling techniques to select 200 respondents. The instrument used was a well-structured questionnaire which had a coefficient of 0.833. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics and null hypotheses formulated were analyzed with Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The findings from the demographic characteristics revealed that majority (73.5%) of the respondents were female. The results from the findings revealed that there is significant relationship between meal planning and nutritional status of families in selected communities in Ilorin east (mean 3.6), there is significant influence of meal planning practices on general wellbeing of families in selected rural communities in Ilorin east (mean 2.6), barriers to effective meal planning negatively influence the nutritional status of families in selected rural communities in Ilorin east (mean 3.9), awareness and knowledge of meal planning significantly influence the nutritional status of families in selected rural communities in Ilorin east (3.2). Based on the findings, the study concluded that majority of the families have an understanding of meal planning with a significant correlation between nutrition and wellbeing among families. It is therefore recommended that there should be awareness campaign to promote the benefit of meal planning among the families in the communities.