Relationship between food security and dietary diversity in Nicaraguan households

dc.contributor.authorMcClennon, Steph
dc.contributor.authorPiperata, Barbara A
dc.contributor.authorSchmeer, Kammi K
dc.contributor.authorHoehn, Natasha
dc.contributor.authorBrown, Garielle
dc.contributor.authorKushlyk, Kristan
dc.contributor.authorWilson, Warren M
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-21T16:58:32Z
dc.date.available2022-03-21T16:58:32Z
dc.date.issued2022-03-23
dc.description.abstractIn 2020, nearly one-in-three people globally lacked access to adequate food; that is, they were food insecure. Food insecurity (FI) has four dimensions – availability, access, utilization, and stability – and is linked to poor health outcomes. Our understanding of the relationship between FI and health, however, is compromised by the fact that most research on FI focuses on the access dimension. This has resulted in a poor understanding of the utilization dimension; that is, how people cope with inadequate access to food as manifest by food choice. Here, we explore the relationship between maternal perceptions of food access and food choice, measured as dietary diversity, in 706 Nicaraguan households across urban, peri-urban and rural settings, and hypothesize that as food access worsens, dietary diversity will decline. Access was measured using the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale. Dietary data were collected via a locally-developed, 7-day food-frequency questionnaire and converted to a household dietary diversity score (HDDS). The relationship was analyzed via multiple regression and ANOVA. We found that 82% of households experienced insufficient access to food and had a mean HDDS=10.9±1.2 out of a maximum score of 12. As access to food worsened, dietary diversity declined (r2=0.15, p<0.001), and the effect of food access on HDDS varied across settings (F=3.53, p=0.02). While we found a relationship between food access and HDDS, the high prevalence of insufficient access to food combined with a high average HDDS suggests that HDDS is too blunt an instrument to capture the lived experience.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMcClennon, S., BA Piperata, B. A., Schmeer, K. K., Hoehn, N., Brown, G., Kushlyk, K., & Wilson, W. M. (2022, March 24). Relationship between food security and dietary diversity in Nicaraguan households [Poster presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Human Biology Association. https://www.humbio.org/2022-annual-meeting/en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1002/ajhb.23740en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/39657
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/114503
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.departmentAnthropology & Archaelogyen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe Ohio State Universityen_US
dc.rightsUnless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectfood securityen_US
dc.subjectdietary diversityen_US
dc.subjectLatin American and Caribbean Food Security Scaleen_US
dc.subjectHousehold Dietary Diversity Scoresen_US
dc.titleRelationship between food security and dietary diversity in Nicaraguan householdsen_US
dc.typeconference posteren_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
ucalgary.scholar.levelGraduateen_US
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