Household Dietary Diversity and Its Influence on Preschoolers' Nutritional Status in Tamale Metropolis, Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: Household dietary diversity serves as a simple indicator of various parameters that affect the nutrition of people. Food security has three important aspects (availability, access, and utilization). Household accessibility to food has also been shown to be affected by demographic and socioeconomic factors, accounting for variations in diet quality. This study aimed to determine the relationship between preschoolers’ household dietary diversity and their nutritional status in the Tamale Metropolis. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used to obtain data from 357 caregiver-preschooler pairs from three randomly selected communities in Tamale Metropolis. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data on the demographic and nutritional status of the preschoolers. Dietary data for preschoolers and households were obtained using a single 24-hour recall method. Height and weight measurements of preschoolers were collected on anthropometric indices (weight-for-height, weight-for-age, and height-for-age). The relationships between the independent variables (household dietary diversity) and dependent variables (weight-for-age, weight-for-height, and height-for-age) were examined using the statistical analysis test to assess the strength of the relationship. The data were collected between December 2022 and January 2023. Results: The results indicated that preschoolers consumed more starchy staples than other food groups. Dairy, egg, and meat products were the least consumed. Households had a mean household dietary diversity of 6.7059 ± 1.23 out of 12 food groups, and about 84.3% of the households had minimum dietary diversity. The finding from this study showed 22.1% stunting, 7.8% wasting and 14.3% underweight. No significant relationship was found between dietary diversity and height-for-age and weight-for-height nutritional status. However, there was a significant relationship between the age of the child and being stunted (P = .00) and underweight (P = .00). Conclusion: These results show no significant relationship between household dietary diversity and preschoolers’ nutritional status. Therefore, there should be improvements in household food security, maternal knowledge of balance, and hygienic food practices.