Determinants of dietary diversity and the potential role of men in improving household nutrition in Tanzania

Abstract

Good nutrition is a prerequisite for a healthy and active life, especially for agriculture-dependent households. However, diets in most households in Tanzania lack diversity because the intake of meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables and fruits is low. This study estimates factors influencing dietary diversity of the household, children under five years, and women using primary survey data. It qualitatively assesses male dietary patterns and men’s potential role in improving the nutritional status of the entire household. The findings show that the most consumed foods within the household are cereals, vegetables, oils and fats, spices, condiments and beverages. Children (d = 0.4; p<0.05) and women (d = 0.5; p<0.01) in female-headed households have low dietary diversity compared to those in male-headed households. Women and children access less diverse diets since 46% and 26%, achieved minimum dietary diversity respectively. Production of vegetables (coef. 0.34; p<0.05) play an important role in improving the dietary diversity of women. Gender (coef. 0.05; p<0.10) and education of the household head (coef. 0.02; p<0.01), food preparation and nutrition training (coef. 0.10; p<0.05) are important factors influencing dietary diversity of the members of a household. Results suggest that there is a need to support community-based programs to provide information on food and the importance of vegetables, their preparation, consumption and utilization to address food and nutrition challenges. Men can contribute towards improving household nutrition security by reducing consumption of food away from the home, especially during periods of food shortages. We recommend the use of complementary quantitative research to determine the patterns and dynamics of men’s dietary diversity and compare it with that of other household members.

Determinants of household dietary diversity in Yayu Biosphere Reserve, Southwest Ethiopia

“…The model output indicates that holding other variable constant, for a one unit increase in age of household head's odds ratio in favor of high category with household dietary diversity increases by the factor of 1.353. Some previous reports appear to be claiming the opposite (Jones et al, 2014;Romeo et al, 2016;Ochieng et al, 2017).…”

Minimum dietary diversity among women of reproductive age in urban Burkina Faso

“…There is paucity of data from other urban settings to compare our results with, but in surveys conducted by the German development cooperation agency (GIZ) in 2015‐2016 in rural settings of ten different countries, MDD‐W ranged from 7% in Ethiopia to 57% in Zambia (Kennedy, Keding, Evang, Nodari, & Scheerer, 2017). In another rural survey conducted in Tanzania during the lean season MDD‐W was recorded at 46% among women 15 to 35 years of age (Ochieng, Afari‐Sefa, Lukumay, & Dubois, ). In the South West region of Burkina Faso, MDD‐W prevalence was 38% in a season of medium food availability (Gina Kennedy et al, 2017), so not too different from what we observed in the structured districts of Ouagadougou but, surprisingly, 10 percentage points higher than in Bobo‐Dioulasso.…”

Nutrition-specific and sensitive drivers of poor child nutrition in Kilte Awlaelo-Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: implications for public health nutrition in resource-poor settings

“…Then, in the model that examined the drivers of child undernutrition, child dietary diversity score was recoded as adequate (consumption of ≥4 food groups/day) and inadequate (consumption of <4 food groups/ day) because consumption of four or more food groups was related to better diet quality [51,52]. However, in a separate model which analyzed the drivers of dietary intake of the young children, CDDS was categorized as low (consumption of <4 food groups), medium (consumption of 4 to 5 food groups), and high (consumption of ≥6 food groups) [53][54][55].…”