Rural income transfer programs and rural household food security in Ethiopia

Breastfeeding Rate, Food Supplementation, Dietary Diversity Among Children Aged 6-59 Months, and Associated Factors in Papua New Guinea

Background: Along the socioeconomic changes in the past decades, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has undergone significant food transition. Little is known about the influence of household and maternal socioeconomic demographic factors on dietary intake and diversity among children under 5 years of age (CU5). Objective: This study aimed to examine breastfeeding rate, food supplementation, dietary intake, and diversity among children aged 6-59 months and to identify associations with household and maternal socioeconomic demographic factors in PNG. Method: Data from 2,943 children were extracted from the Comprehensive Health and Epidemiological Surveillance System database, operated by the PNG Institute of Medical Research and used to estimate breastfeeding rate, food supplementation, and dietary intake of CU5 in a typical week. Dietary diversity score (DDS) was used as a proxy indicator to measure nutrient adequacy. Associations of DDS with household and maternal socioeconomic and demographic factors were examined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Result: The breastfeeding rate among children aged 6-8 months was 85% (70% in urban and 90% in rural sectors), and 50% of children of this age group were fed with supplementary foods. Twenty percent of children aged 6-23 months were currently breastfed and received solid, semisolid, and soft foods three times or more per day. Forty-eight percent of children aged 6-59 months had a total DDS below the average level (23 scores). Place of residence, mother's education, and household wealth were associated with dietary diversity among studied children. Children in urban areas are 10% more likely to have a lower level of total DDS than those in rural areas (OR: 1.11 [0.79-1.56]; p-value: 0.5). Children whose mothers had a primary education level were 1.6-fold more likely to have a lower level of total DDS than children whose mothers had vocational training or college education (OR: 1.63 [0.68-3.92]; p-value: 0.28). Children from the poorest households were 1.2-fold more likely to have a lower DDS than those from the richest households (OR: 1.22 [0.79-1.87]; p-value: 0.37). Discussion: A range of factors has been identified, contributing to the eating behaviors among CU5 in PNG, in which mother's education and household wealth are among the most important determinants of childhood dietary diversity as they have a direct effect on accessibility to and affordability of a variety of foods at the household level. Conclusion: Evidence-based integrated and comprehensive approaches are needed to improve women education and household wealth, contributing to the improvement of food diversity among young children in PNG.

Association of food security and other socio-economic factors with dietary diversity and nutritional statuses of children aged 6-59 months in rural Bangladesh

Introduction

Dietary diversity score (DDS) is a proxy indicator for measuring nutrient adequacy. In this study, we aimed to identify the nutritional statuses and current patterns of DDS among children between 6–59 months old and their associations with different individual and household level factors in rural Bangladesh.

Methods

The Nobokoli programme of World Vision Bangladesh was implemented in Mymensingh, Sherpur, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagar, and Nilphamari districts of Bangladesh between 2014 and 2017. A cross-sectional community household survey was administered between July and October 2014 to collect baseline data to evaluate the Nobokoli programme. A total of 6,468 children between 6–59 months old were included in the final analysis. Anthropometric data was collected following WHO guidelines on using wooden height and digital weight scales. We collected food intake information for the past 24 hours of the survey. The WHO’s child growth standard medians were used to identify the nutritional indices of stunting, wasting, and underweight. Food items consumed were categorized into nine food groups and the DDS was constructed by counting the consumption of food items across these groups during the preceding 24 hour period. The association of DDS and nutritional status (stunting, wasting and underweight) with sociodemographic factors and household food security status were examined using multivariable models; linear regression and logistics regression respectively.

Results

The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among children aged 6-59months were 36.8%, 18.2% and 37.7% respectively. Our findings revealed that almost all children ate any form of starch followed by consumption of milk or milk products (76%) and fleshy meat /fish (61%) respectively. The mean DDS among children was 3.93(sd 1.47). Forty percent of the children obtained a DDS score less than 4. Multivariable analysis suggested that children whose mothers had higher educational attainment and are skilled workers had higher DDS (15% and 48% respectively) compared to their counterparts. The DDS showed strong positive association with household wealth status. Children from food secure households had 26% higher DDS compared to children from food insecure households. Similarly, increasing maternal education and household wealth were found to be protective against childhood stunting and undernutrition.

Discussion

Our findings reiterate the need for improving household socioeconomic factors and household food security status for improving dietary diversity practices and nutritional status of children. Evidence-based solutions are needed to be implemented and expanded at scale to ensure appropriate dietary practices and improve nutritional status of the children in local context.

Validity of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale for Use in Sub-Saharan Africa and Characteristics of Food-Insecure Individuals

BACKGROUND

The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is a UN FAO-Voices of the Hungry project (FAO-VoH) metric of food insecurity (FI). The FAO-VoH tested the psychometric properties of FIES with the use of global 2014 Gallup World Poll (GWP) data. However, similarities in its psychometric structure in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to allow aggregation of SSA results were untested.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to 1) assess the validity of FIES for use in SSA, 2) determine the prevalence of FI by country, age group, and gender, and 3) examine the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of individuals with FI.

METHODS

The Rasch modeling procedure was applied to data collected by GWP in 2014 and 2015 on 57,792 respondents aged ≥19 y in SSA.

RESULTS

FIES largely met the Rasch model assumptions of equal discrimination and conditional independence. However, 34.3% of countries had high outfits (≥2.0) for the item "went without eating for a whole day." Four countries had significant correlations for the items "were hungry but did not eat" and "ran out of food." The overall prevalence of severe FI (SFI) was 36.4%, ranging from 6.0% in Mauritius to 87.3% in South Sudan. Older adults were at significantly higher risk of SFI than younger adults (38.6% and 35.8%, respectively, P < 0.0001), and women more than men (37.3% and 35.4%, respectively, P < 0.0001). Higher proportions of individuals with SFI were rural residents, less educated, lower income, unemployed, and lived in households with many children under the age of 15 y.

CONCLUSIONS

FIES has acceptable levels of internal validity for use in SSA. However, the item "went without eating for a whole day" may need cognitive testing in a few SSA countries. For countries with correlated items, 1 of the items may be excluded.