Analyzing the Drivers of Household Dietary Diversity: Evidence from Burkina Faso

Does government food demonstration intervention influence household dietary diversity in the Upper West Region of Ghana?

Dietary diversity is crucial in ensuring food and nutrition security. In low-middle-income countries, people frequently prioritize the quantity of food they consume over its quality due to a lack of availability and financial limitations. As a result, achieving dietary diversity is often overlooked in favor of ensuring adequate caloric intake. Through a social cognitive theory perspective, our study examines the relationship between food demonstrations and household dietary diversity in Ghana's Upper West Region utilizing cross-sectional survey data from 517 smallholder farmer households. The results from ordered logistic regression presented in odds ratio (OR) show that participating in food demonstrations (OR: 2.585, p<0.01), engaging in home gardening (OR: 1.932, p<0.001), having access to credit (OR: 1.609, p<0.01), self-rated good nutritional status (OR: 1.747, p<0.01), and Waala ethnicity (OR: 3.686, p<0.001) were all positively associated with high household dietary diversity. Conversely, living in the Wa West district was associated with lower dietary diversity (OR: 0.326, p<0.001). Our research findings suggest that policymakers may want to consider implementing community-based educational programs, such as home and school visits for food demonstrations and sensitizations, promoting mother-to-mother support groups for dietary diversity education, nutrition counseling services, and using role-play and local media. In addition, strengthening local agricultural policies through food banks, indigenous seed development, and mobile food markets and enhancing public-private partnerships like the Ghana Schools Feeding Programme and National Food Buffer Stock company could improve the supply chain and distribution networks for diverse food items. Implementing these interventions in the Upper West Region of Ghana could improve health, well-being, food security, and nutritional outcomes.

The association of the healthy food diversity index with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among the adult population

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Dietary diversity index is a useful evaluation index for examining the role of dietary pattern in predicting chronic diseases risk, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). In the present study, we aimed to examine the possible association of dietary diversity using US Healthy Food Diversity(US HFD) index and the NAFLD risk in Iranian adults.

METHODS

A total of 675 individuals (225 patients with NAFLD and 450 controls) aged 20-60 years were recruited for the current case-control study. Data on dietary intakes were determined using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and dietary diversity was calculated using the US HFD index. In patients with NAFLD, an ultrasound scan of the liver was used to detect NAFLD. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios(ORs) and 95 % confidence interval(CI) of NAFLD across tertiles of the US HFD index.

RESULTS

Mean ± SD age of the study population were 38.13 ± 8.85 years. The median (interquartile) score of the US HFD index in patients with NAFLD and healthy subjects was 0.08(0.07-0.09) and 0.09(0.08-0.10), respectively. In the age and sex-adjusted model, the odds of NAFLD were considerably reduced across tertiles of the US HFD index (OR:0.48; 95%CI:0.32-0.72, Ptrend<0.001). Also, in the final model, after adjusting for age, sex, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, physical activity, marital status, socioeconomic status, and energy intake, the odds of NAFLD were significantly reduced across tertiles US HFD index (OR:0.55; 95%CI:0.31-0.97, Ptrend<0.001). Furthermore, for each SD increase in the US HFD index, the odds of NAFLD are reduced by 23 % (OR:0.77;95%CI:0.60-0.97,P-Value<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings revealed that greater adherence to dietary pattern with a high US HFD score, defined by higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, low-fat dairy, seeds, soya products, and plant oils may be related to reducing the odds of NAFLD.