Recommendations to scale up dietary diversity data at household and individual level in India. Issue 6 (November 2021) - Vijay, Jyoti
Abstract: Background and aims: An attempt to recommend scale up of dietary diversity data at household and individual level for improving the food and nutrition security, the study was conducted with the objective to explore the dietary diversity (DD) and its associated risk factors among reproductive age women in India. Methodology: A total of 5, 48, 806 women aged 15–49 years were asked how often they consume various types of food groups (daily, weekly, occasionally, or never). Association between adequate DD and its covariates such as individual and household were measured by using logistic regression. Results: Most of the population consumed dark green leafy vegetables, milk/curd and pulses/beans. Only 1.7% of women consumed diet with adequate diversity or five or more food groups. Women's educations, gestation status, wealth status, sex of household head, household size, religion, place of residence and land ownership were significantly associated with adequate DD. The percentages of population with adequate DD varies from 7% to <1% in different states of India which shows that good-quality-diet is a major issue in entire country. Conclusion: There is an urgent need of programs focused on availability of food with maximum diversity at minimum cost in order to reduce maternal and child mortality in India. To reduce geographic variation in achieving adequate DD, new approaches are required in developing multiple interventions to address major preventable causes of DD. Individual state government should also take serious measure to improve the consumption of variety of food groups. Highlights: Only 1.7% of reproductive age women were consuming diet with adequate diversity (>4 food groups). Education of women and her socio-economic status were positively associated with dietary diversity. There is a need to generate sufficient dietary diversity data at individual and household level for better health outcomes. This is the first study which explored dietary diversity and its associated risk factors in India.